


Stark, Sofia Anne

by So_Fucking_Bored



Series: I'm learning to love you, Sofia [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alpha Bruce Banner, Alpha Bucky Barnes, Alpha Clint Barton, Alpha Natasha Romanov, Alpha Sam Wilson, Alpha Steve Rogers, Alpha Thor (Marvel), Alpha Tony Stark, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - BDSM, Domestic Discipline, Drugs, Dubious Consent, Everyone Is Gay, Everyone Is Poly Because Avengers, Everyone is Part of the Pack, F/F, F/M, Fuck Cannon, Light Dom/sub, Light Somnophilia, M/M, Multi, Multiple Orgasms, Non-Traditional Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Orgasm Delay/Denial, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Power Imbalance, Underage Drinking, in some aspects, not cannon compliant at all, seriously barely even the first movie, slight mommy kink
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-26
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:03:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 47,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27727862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/So_Fucking_Bored/pseuds/So_Fucking_Bored
Summary: “Thank fuck, do you want Happy to get you? Innit a long ass walk?”“No it’s fine I’m like halfway home,” she said, only noticing as a cyclist nearly collided with a car that she’d said home. Sofia hadn’t ever had a home, hadn’t ever really referred to anywhere as home. It felt like a lot more to unpack than she was in the mood for.Thankfully, Bucky either hadn’t noticed or didn’t care to comment on her word choice, and she didn’t point out that she wasn’t halfway there either.~~~~Sofia had a home now, and things were slowly but surely getting better, but it seemed like everything seemed to want to crash down on her at once.Or part two to the story where sexism is way worse, corona isn't real, and the avengers' eighteen year old mate is trying to make her way through life.
Relationships: Everyone/Everyone, OFC/Everyone, Tony Stark/Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes/Clint Barton/Natasha Romanov/Sam Wilson/Thor/Bruce Banner/OFC
Series: I'm learning to love you, Sofia [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2016185
Comments: 78
Kudos: 109





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 5/12/2020
> 
> Hi, if you're new welcome this is a part two so I suggest reading part one but since it's a bit long maybe just read the last few chapters of it so you get a sense of what's going on here. If you're not new welcome back I'm really excited to see where this goes and I hope you like it. At the beginning notes for each chapter, I have the date to give a better sense of how time passes as we go.

Sofia had been adamant about not wanting Happy to drive her back from school and had only won because she’d convinced Bucky that she knew how to take the train to the tower. 

The only thing with taking the train to the tower though, was that the train didn’t actually stop near the tower, even though the peeling white paint on the wall read _Stark Towers Station_. Instead, it stopped five, inhumanely large, Manhattan blocks away. 

At least, it was supposed to. Rather, there had been a track fire at that station and her train wound up getting stuck between stations for almost half an hour, then going back and kicking out passengers at the previous stop, which was nearly _fifteen_ inhumanely large blocks away. 

To add the proverbial cherry onto her already shitty situation, her wrist had been throbbing unbearably since she’d fallen _up_ the stairs on her way rushing to Ms. H’s class since her teacher had promised her a batch of blueberry muffins. 

The only conceivable bright side was that there was a tupperware full of muffins in her backpack that her teacher had sent her home with. 

When she felt the telltale buzzing of her phone in her pocket, she brought it out and answered without checking, then stuffed it back into her pocket, hoping the Air-Pods Tony had given her would stay connected. 

_“Is your train on fire?”_

“Wha- no but I gotta walk from the stop before. They closed the station,” she looked quickly to the side to check that there weren’t any cars coming, then started walking. 

She hadn’t really known what to expect, moving to one of the more wealthy sides of Manhattan, but she hadn’t expected for the train service to be nearly as shitty as it had been in Brooklyn. 

_“Thank fuck, do you want Happy to get you? Innit a long ass walk?”_

“No it’s fine I’m like halfway home,” she said, only noticing as a cyclist nearly collided with a car that she’d said home. Sofia hadn’t ever had a home, hadn’t ever really referred to anywhere as home. It felt like a lot more to unpack than she was in the mood for. 

Thankfully, Bucky either hadn’t noticed or didn’t care to comment on her word choice, and she didn’t point out that she wasn’t halfway there either. 

On their end in the background, she heard a shocked, _“Sofia, I_ miss _you.”_

“Harley?” She asked, sidestepping a woman that was arguing with her infant. 

_“Poor pup got into Bruce’s weed and greened out,”_ Clint offered, dried amusement prominent in his voice. 

“Aww, baby no, I have muffins for you.” 

_“Muffins?”_ He asked hopefully, and she smiled, hoping that the people around her realized she wasn’t talking to herself. 

“Gimme like ten minutes alright?” She could speed up a bit for Harley. Greening out was terrifying, and she was pretty sure the pup had done it when he was by himself. 

Someone said something, but she wasn’t paying much attention and just mumbled out a response. 

“Wait,” she protested when she thought they were about to hang up on her, “Bruce has weed?”

Whoever was holding the phone hung up on her, and she vowed to find Bruce’s stash, then muttered to herself, “Bad Sofia no drugs for you until like, well I can probably convince-” she cut herself off, mentally doing the math to see how long until Dr. Weaver’s ban would be up. 

It was more of a suggestion than a ban, but Dr. Weaver’s _heavy_ suggestion to stay sober for a few weeks had been in place since they’d spoken on the fifth, and it was only the twelfth. Theoretically, she had the option to not listen, but there was a nagging part at the back of her head that wanted to trust Dr. Weaver, so she’d wait until at least June to bring it up. 

Maybe. 

Possibly.

She’d try at least, she promised herself as she checked her phone, unsure if she was supposed to turn or not. The GPS said she was set to turn on the next block, but she still rechecked her phone three times to make sure she didn’t turn on the wrong block. 

She didn’t, and got to the side entrance of the tower before the ten minutes were up, and pressed her thumb into the scanner so she could go straight up to the pack’s floor. 

Harley was half passed out in Peter’s lap, and the younger pup looked confused on whether he should be annoyed or amused. Sofia understood, she really did, but the confused look in Peter’s eyes was more comical than anything. 

“Sofia I miss you,” Harley declared, carefully over pronouncing his words. While she smiled at him indulgently, she made sure to peek up through her lashes at Tony, whose eyes she could feel boring into her. 

Bucky eagerly pulled her into his lap when she got close enough, then frustratedly pushed her forward to pull off her backpack while she laughed. 

“Hi,” she greeted once he’d managed, a little breathless from the laughter and the strange feeling of contentment that came with everyone being in one room. 

He hummed contentedly and pressed a kiss to her temple. 

“Hey baby,” he said, watching as she leaned over to stroke Harley’s hair. 

She leaned down to grab the bag Bucky had carelessly let fall to the ground, and pulled out the container her teacher had sent home. 

“My teacher made us all muffins, they’re really good.” 

“Muffins,” Harley repeated, and collectively they watched him with a mild amount of interest, like he was a car crash about to explode and they didn’t want to miss it. 

“Does anyone else want muffins? She sent a lot,” she offered, then passed around the rest of the muffins after Harley had eagerly dug into his. 

“What happened to your wrist?” Bucky asked, lightly pressing his thumb into the swollen and bruised wrist she’d been unconsciously holding a bit closer to her just as Harley sat up suddenly and proclaimed, “Oh shit Sofia’s gotta know the secret.” 

Behind her, Bucky stiffened a little bit, and she could sense a slight apprehension coming in different forms from all of the bonds between her and the others, but it was Peter’s wide eyes that made her laugh. 

“It’s okay Harley, I know he’s Spider-Man,” she said and ignored the way Peter’s eyes widened in a genuine shock. 

“Peter Spider-Man literally enters somewhere Peter Parker exits five minutes later, and don’t complain it’s not like anyone’s ever gonna see it.” It was true, a few months ago when the new hero had come into the spotlight, she’d gotten curious and had done some digging. Part of her still wanted to smack some sense into the teen, but she’d taken to deleting any footage that could be used to put two and two together whenever she had the chance. 

She’d kind of just forgotten to mention it. 

Peter and Harley both let them drop the topic, and eventually, Bucky quietly drew Bruce’s attention to her swollen wrist. 

“I think it’s broken.” 

“It’s not broken.” 

“It looks broken.”

“No,” she argued one last time, jaw clenched in pain when he pressed too hard on the already tender area. 

Behind them, Peter snorted and pushed Harley off of his lap, “C’mon they’re gonna get gross.” 

Part of Sofia wanted to be embarrassed, but her hindbrain thought fucking Bruce or Bucky would probably get her out of being put in a cast. 

“Look,” Tony offered, coming up to press himself against the side of her and Bucky that Harley and Peter had just left, “I’ve got some stuff that’ll do the X-Ray up here, and Clint’s always breaking something so there’s cast stuff up here do. Don’t even have to go to the Med-Bay.” 

Sofia had a very distinct gut feeling that her wrist was broken, and she was pretty sure that the others did as Bucky nudged her towards Tony and the strange little machine he pulled out of nowhere. 

“Okay, oww, that hurt, stop this should be illegal, unhand me _James,_ ” she protested vehemently, but didn’t actually fight much when Bruce and Bucky pulled her towards the coffee table and set her hand down flat atop it. 

Tony scanned it with his little machine, and twenty minutes later, she was sulking, half hidden in Tony’s side as Bruce cast her arm in waterproof black fiberglass. 

“It’s gonna smell,” she protested half-heartedly, looking down at the cast with disdain. She’d had her arm put in a cast before, and never stopped hating it. 

“It’s good that omegas heal similarly to children. We should be able to replace the cast with a splint in maybe two weeks. You gonna tell us what happened now?” Bruce asked, finishing it up, his instincts showing through his usually calm demeanor. 

“No.” 

“Don’t be like that,” Tony cajoled, nosing at Sofia’s neck and rubbing at the exposed skin of her thigh that peeked through between her kneehighs and skirt. 

“The fuck?” He asked when the trail of his hand was interrupted by the shorts she wore under her skirt. 

“What? You didn’t know I put shorts?” 

She was fairly sure she’d slapped his hand away this morning _after_ he’d felt up her ass under the shirt, but looking back she was tired enough that there was a chance it had been someone else. 

“But- but what if I wanted to just ya know put you on my lap and do the thing?”

Unconsciously, butterflies erupted in Sofia’s stomach, and she squirmed closer into Tony’s hand, torn between wanting to be his lap, squirming on his knot, her panties pulled to the side, and wanting to roll her eyes because she’d religiously worn shorts under her uniform skirt since kindergarten. 

No matter, she inched her thigh further out to give Tony better access. She didn’t want to tell them that she’d broken it early this morning, and she knew that they’d laugh when they found out she’d done this on her way up the stairs of all things. 

“Then take ‘em off,” she countered, grinding down on his jean clad thigh underneath her. Her left leg was folded underneath her, and because Tony had backed himself up against the arm of the sofa, his left leg was sprawled out in front of them, resting over Bruce’s lap next to all of the supplies they’d used. 

“You’re right, how dare I keep what I want all locked away from me,” Tony tapped the side of her hip to get her to lean up, then awkwardly struggled to pull her shorts and underwear down. 

“Right? Thought you were supposed to be smart,” she countered, expecting more of a reaction than Tony’s snort of laughter and for him to wrestle with the fabric that had tangled around her thighs. 

When he couldn’t get it very far down because of the way Sofia writhed as she laughed good naturedly, he huffed in annoyance and flipped her over his shoulder in a move she didn’t expect from him. 

She growled a deep, surely intimidating growl and pounded both hands against his back, hoping that at least the casted hand would leave a bruise. 

“Can you please pause? I’m trying to get this down,” Tony said conversationally. He must have prompted someone to do something, because the next thing she knew a laughing Clint had his hands wrapped around her ankles, effectively keeping them from kicking and letting Tony pull her shorts and underwear down. 

“Wait where are we going?” She squealed when Tony got up from the couch, her bottoms discarded on the couch, one of his arms palming her bare ass cheek, and the other holding her legs down. 

“To the bed, I’m not an animal.” She didn’t mind having sex on the couch, it wasn’t like she hadn’t before, but she was kind of glad they were moving. So far she hadn’t had sex with anyone in front of a non participant, and Tony had been the only one that really smelled horny. 

Still, he was walking unreasonably slow, and she was uncomfortable at the angle he was holding her, so as politely as she could manage, she asked, “Can you at least put me down?” 

“Nah, this is a great view.” 

“Wha- Tony no,” she protested, only for him to lay a playful but loud smack on the crease of her ass and thigh, making her squeal indignantly at the suddenness of it, “Was that necessary? Was that reall- _ow_ okay that one kinda hurt,” she rambled to herself, and slapped both her hands against his back again, scared that if she reached back to rub out the sting he’d let her fall. 

“Hey don’t hit me back, that’s crazy and your ass is too nice for you to be crazy,” he said conversationally, and Sofia wondered if he was the one on drugs rather than Harley. 

Sofia wanted to ask him if he’d like to see _crazy_ but she was too busy flying through the air as Tony threw her onto the bed. 

She really wondered when the old age would kick in on this alpha. 

“Hi baby,” he said gently once she’d finished bouncing, crouched over her and raking his fingers through her hair to get the mess away from her face. 

Rather than greet him back, she puckered her lips in offering, silently urging him down to kiss her. 

“You’re a mess,” she reminded once he broke the strangely sweet peck. 

Someone was probably dying, because he hadn’t ever kissed her like that, and it couldn’t possibly good. 

Either that or someone had cancer, there was no other option, but instead of dwelling on her most likely unfounded fear, she wrapped her legs around him as tightly as she could. 

He lowered himself so he was putting just the right amount of pressure on her, and she felt her hindbrain rise up violently, eager to submit to the will of her mate. 

“Tony,” she whined more than gasped, turning her head to bare her throat. She had been too sore to put her collar back on this morning, and the skin that had fallen victim to one of Thor’s more feral bites last night had just scabbed over during the day. Now, the expanse of her skin was covered in bruises and new, shiny pink scars that were more sensitive to the touch than any point on her body. 

She wrapped her good arm around his head to try and keep him from moving, wanting to encourage him to bite but still too nervous in this situation to say anything. 

“Later,” he promised, lingering anyways to nose at the sensitive skin, nearly breaking the scab. He pulled back, and she didn’t fight to keep her grip around his neck, knowing he’d break it anyway if he felt the need to. 

Tony sat back on his heels, palms on his knees like he didn’t know what to do with them, and eyes roving over her body like he didn’t need to take off the school uniform to see her bare. 

He kept them like that, her legs sprawled out on either side of his knees, and body fully clothed in a way it usually never was when they were in bed. It wasn’t until the intensity of the stare and the emotions coming through their bond made her squirm too much that he moved to grab the backs of her thighs and pull them open so he could properly look his fill. 

She wasn’t sure how much he could see with her skirt in the way, but her suspicions were confirmed that he couldn’t see much when his eyes snapped up and he ordered, the playfulness still teasing at the edge of his voice, “Hold it up for me, alright?” 

When she complied, movements tentative and unsure, he gently rubbed a circle on her inner thigh with his thumb and crooned, “There we go little girl, so good for me.” 

At the praise, she arched into his touch, core clenching around nothing under his gaze. 

“You still sore baby?” He asked, widely not commenting on her newfound silence. She didn’t give Tony a verbal answer, but nodded. 

It was true, she was unreasonably sore and it had just started to ease up before she’d gotten back to the den. Hell, she was pretty sure she wasn’t even _wet_ because she was so sore. 

Here though, with Tony’s thumbs rubbing slow circles into her inner thighs and feeling strangely exposed despite being nearly fully clothed, it didn’t really matter how sore she was. 

She knew Tony didn’t care, and she didn’t care much either. 

He swiped a thumb over her folds, collecting whatever slick had accumulated, making her jump at the unanticipated touch, then whine when he made a show of sucking it clean.

“C’mon baby girl, gonna kiss it better for you,” he coaxed, leaning over her to press a kiss to her stomach to pave his way to her core. 

Sofia wasn’t sure what to do at that point, her good hand left its spot holding up her skirt to tangle in the hair at the nape of his neck, and she tried to hide her face in the forearm of her bad arm, too used to keeping quiet to comfortably make a noise. 

Tony had no qualms being loud though, accompanying every other broad stroke of his tongue with a hum and the occasional groan. 

“C’mon Sofia, wanna hear you,” he urged, pulling himself up so he could rest his chin against her navel, the lower half of his face and beard coated in a mess of slick and spit. 

“Wha?” She asked, clumsily trying to prop herself up on her elbow to look at him. 

“Wanna hear you,” he insisted, then leaned back down to press a thumb on her clit, the only part of her groin that wasn’t sore and overworked from too much stimulation over the past two weeks. 

Shit, aside from now, the only person that had reliably touched her there was Steve, and sometimes Clint if he was in the right mood. 

Bruce had done it before but had seemed much more interested burying his face in her chest as she rode him, and that trend had somehow continued. 

Like he’d aimed for, she arched visibly under him, a strangled noise she innately tried to stifle bubbling in her throat. 

Tony laughed quietly, but still encouraged her to wrap her legs back around his head, now seeming to chase her orgasm rather than try to stimulate her enough to get her wet. 

She did her best not to give any outward signs as her orgasm came closer, not wanting to risk Tony stopping his ministrations as he rhythmically switched between rubbing her clit and just to the side where she was the most sensitive with a thumb, or the equally dedicated way he alternated between pushing his tongue into her and kissing her opening gently. 

Tony noticed anyway, somewhere between when she outright pulled his hair and dug her heel into his back. 

He pulled away from between her thighs and hushed her mockingly when she whined. 

She was hot and sweaty, her shirt was uncomfortably sticking to her skin, and her glasses were crookedly resting on her face. 

“There you go,” he soothed, leaning down to nose at her forehead. She let him, then tilted her chin up in request for a kiss. He tasted like slick, but she probably tasted like the muffins they just ate earlier, so she guessed it was even. 

“Got you all wet for me baby, just like I promised,” he said into the kiss, voice breathless and fogging up her glasses in a way that should have been annoying. 

“Thank you, thank you, please Tony,” she mumbled, trying to hide her face in his neck so she wouldn’t have to meet his eyes. She wrapped her legs around his waist and tried to get friction against his annoyingly soft t-shirt, missing the days where they all just lounged around in their sleep clothes. 

Tony continued to give her those hushing little growls in an effort to soothe her and inched his way up her body so she could press her face into his neck. 

She nuzzled her face into his neck, nipping and licking at the skin there. Above her, Tony had reached down to fumble with his pants with one hand, the other interlocked in her own, the awkward angle forcing him to put his weight on his elbow for a minute or two. 

The rough denim of his jeans chafed her inner thighs when he inched closer, but it was the head of his length slowly sliding into her that made her hiss in pain and arch away. 

Sure he’d relaxed her and gotten her wet, but she hadn’t really been stretched, and the burn surprised her. 

“No, _fuck-_ Sofia,” he chastened gently, then tried to find a better angle, still awkwardly over her.

“C’mon, just a- fuck Tony just gimme a sec to,” she didn’t finish, cut off by her own shout when he thrust into her all at once. 

Tears brimmed in her eyes, and it _hurt_ but Tony was making those little crooning growls deep in his chest that made her want to relax and let him do whatever he wanted to her. 

Hurt little noises were leaving her throat, but Tony didn’t try to move, just kept leaning over her and let her bury her face in his neck until she stopped trying to pull away from him. 

When he’d decided she’d had enough time to adjust, he pulled back and braced himself with a hand on either side of her head. 

It didn’t hurt as much now when he slowly pulled out and thrust back in, unusually gentle despite the way he quickly picked up speed. Thankfully, he was still laying over her enough that his weight forced her to lay down and let her bury her face in his neck. 

“Good girl,” he praised breathlessly, only a little louder than her muffled groans and curses but still loud enough for her to hear clearly. 

She reached down to tug off and throw her glasses somewhere on the bed, they’d gotten too foggy and smudged with sweat for her to see much of anything, then after a particularly hard thrust, slapped Tony on the shoulder. 

“Off,” she complained, her shirt was uncomfortably tight on her skin, and the unpleasant sensation kept nagging at the back of her mind. 

It took Tony a second or two to realize she’d said something, but he sat back on his heels, then reached under her skirt to grasp her hips, most likely about to add to the collection of hand shaped bruises she had there that refused to fade. 

He changed the angle a bit again, hitting the spot inside her that made her arch up with a gasp. 

“Go on baby, get that shirt off,” he reminded, intentionally digging his short nails into the skin of her ass. 

Sofia stuttered a bit, barely coherent words interrupted by gasps as he zeroed in on her g-spot, smelling vaguely amused as she fumbled with the cast to get her shirt over her head. 

It took her a few tries, and she got a button tangled in her hair, but Tony gently slowed to a stop to help her get it out, a soft laugh leaving his lips. 

She laughed too, and for a second they stood like that, eyes locked and smiles on their lips. Sofia felt those terrifying three words form on her tongue, but rather than say them squeezed her legs tighter around Tony so he’d start moving again. 

He didn’t, opting to reach under her and unclasp her bra so she could pull it off. 

It landed somewhere on the floor, but she was too occupied feeling Tony’s thumb trace her swollen bottom lip. 

Obligingly, she opened her mouth, harsh little whines and near chirps coming from her chest as he used the pad of his thumb to stroke her tongue in a move that would normally have her staring up at her partner in comedic disbelief. 

Instead, she felt the way Tony’s knot had begun to form, and wrapped her tongue around his thumb as much as she could. 

More likely than not, he’d probably let her cum once it’d- 

Tony slid his wet thumb over her nipple and rubbed the thumb of his other hand over her clit, somehow having adjusted himself on his knees so he could balance on his right elbow again. 

She was closer than she thought she was, and between the stimulation Tony was so generously giving her and the soft, “C’mon Sof, you’re doing so good, so good for me, there you go baby, just like that,” that he kept repeating her toes curled tightly where her heels were digging into his lower back, one of her knee highs having fallen off and the other pooling around her ankle. 

Her orgasm didn’t crest with a scream, not that it did so often, but rather with a high pitched squeal and a sharp “ _Fuck_ ” that had her digging her nails hard enough into Tony’s upper arm that she broke skin a little. 

“Wh- who the fuck has cancer?” She asked a second or two after it had passed, thighs still trembling with the aftershocks

“The fuck? Is this what I get for being nice?” Tony asked, confused enough that he’d stopped thrusting, then when Sofia didn’t have an answer for him, put his thumb back in her mouth and said, “No don’t answer that.” 

She was insanely oversensitized, and it burned more than it was pleasurable at this point, but Tony had stopped rubbing her clit at least. 

A particularly harsh suck of his thumb got his knot to pop with a deep groan, and he laid back down on her, almost crushing her with his weight. 

The know would probably last less than five minutes, but they both knew they couldn’t just lay like that, so he put a hand between her shoulders and one under her head, and gently rolled them over so that she was laying on his chest. 

“Nope, sit up think you can go again,” he palmed her ass and slapped it gently, though it was more of a pat that made a noise. 

“No.”

“Not asking,” he pushed her into a sitting position, then growled in a way that made her clench around his pulsing knot. 

He reached down to rub her clit in a slow, gentle motion that had her gasping again and rocking down into him with short, sharp motions. 

“You’re doing so good listening to me,” he praised when her voice took a particularly high pitch, “not even trying to touch yourself, just like we asked.” 

“I’d lock you up if I could,” he continued nonchalantly, her eyes opened quickly in shock. Not being able to be put in a cock cage had been one of the only reasons she’d been thankful to be a girl, especially after seeing some of her friends being put into them. 

“I would,” he insisted when she shook her head in denial, a litany of “No Tony, no,” falling from her lips, keeping those slow, gentle motions up that had her rocking down into him involuntarily. 

He rubbed a thumb over the nipple he’d neglected earlier, and her orgasm crashed over her even as she shook her head, a short scream leaving her throat this time.

Her neck ached when it was over, itching to bare her throat to Tony, tired of being on top, and overall _sore,_ but the knot was still locked, and because of how she’d been moving would probably stay locked longer than it should have. 

“And what do we say when our alpha gives us an orgasm?” He asked sarcastically, gently guiding her to lay down on him again. 

“Thank you alpha,” she slurred, fisting the fabric of his shirt in her good hand. 

“Marry me,” he blurted, one hand stroking her cheek and the other rubbing circles into her bare back. 

She knew that they’d get married eventually, and for all intents and purposes it was just for the sake of a party, but, “No.” 

“Oh, okay uh forget I-”

Sofia cut off his dejected rambling, sensing the sadness and regret from both the bond and his scent, “You’re not proposing to me with your knot locked and me in just a school skirt. I want my ring.” 

“Oh fuck- of course, there was this big ole plan an’ I- but yeah no I have a ring I promise, just-”

“Tony the ring’ll still be there when the knot goes down,” she laughed, looking up at him through her lashes. With the height difference, they couldn’t kiss but the knot was already going down a little and she’d be able to kiss him soon. 

A minute or two later when the knot had gone down enough for him to pull out, and once he was able to he pulled out Natasha’s sleep shirt from under a pillow somewhere and pulled it on her hurriedly, then righted his pants to go run towards the drawer where Steve kept his sketchbooks. 

“Take the skirt off,” he urged, impatiently shifting his weight from foot to foot in front of the bed as she rushed to oblige. 

She slid off the bed to stand in front of him, and he clumsily went down to one knee and made a grand gesture of opening the small square box. 

“Will you, Sofia Anne Stark, be my lawfully wedded wife?” 

“Wait, wait I wanna see it,” she paused, then fumbled on the bed for her discarded glasses while he laughed. 

“Alright,” she squealed excitedly once they were on. They were still smudged enough she couldn’t see perfectly, but she could see the finer details of the ring. 

It was a circular diamond in a silver band with what looked like threads of gold swirling around in the same pattern as her collar, there were small diamonds going around the band, but Sofia just cared that it was _hers_. 

“Oh, oh shit,” she whispered, palm flying to cover her open mouth. 

“Is that a yes?” He asked, and Sofia broke out of her stupor enough to recognize the anxiousness in his voice. 

She flung herself at him, arms wrapped tightly around his neck and nearly sitting in his lap. 

He rocked back a bit, but laughed that happy laugh again that never failed to put a smile on her face. 

“Yes, yes holy fuck yes.” 

He lost his balance and fell back onto his ass, but she followed him gladly, and this time when she looked up at him, she kissed him. 

When she tried to go to the attached bathroom to pee, Tony rolled his eyes and dried off the cum coating her inner thighs with her shirt. 

“I’m gonna get a UTI,” she breathed out, but Tony picked her up in a bridal carry and walked out of the room shouting, “She said yes.” 

Steve gave Clint a wide eyed, hopeful look that Sofia was pretty sure meant Steve’d wone some sort of bet, Bucky rolled his eyes, and Same, Natasha, and Bruce smiled. 

Apparently, part of the pack’s big plan had been for Bucky to make them a nice dinner to eat at one of the tables on the roof, then for Tony to propose at the end of the night. 

Bucky still made dinner, and they still ate together on the roof, the only difference was that there was a ring on her finger and she was only wearing Natasha’s shirt. 

Later, when she’d finally gotten around to doing her homework for the next day, she looked at the folded envelope that had been sitting on the desk in the room she was using as a pseudo, informal office. 

Not wanting to focus on Calculus anymore, she reached for the envelope and opened it as carefully as she could. 

They’d run the test days ago, but she hadn’t gotten the courage to open it yet and no one had rushed her to do so. 

Under the maternity test were the words _VALENTINA SOFIA PEREZ_ then in another column, _STATUS: DECEASED._

“Dr. Weaver is gonna have so much fun tomorrow,” she mumbled, tears lining her eyes as she skimmed over the percentages to land on the paternity test. 

_PHILLIP JAMES COULSON, STATUS: ALIVE_

She and her therapist were definitely going to have an interesting conversation during their next session, she decided, bursting out into an uncontrollable, hollow laugh. 

  
  
  
  



	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 5/13/2020

Sofia heard the loud alarm, but rather than acknowledge it, she tried to move further into whatever body she was pressed up against. 

“C’mon Sof, you’re gonna be late,” Bucky murmured into her hair that was still damp from the wash she’d given it the night before. She whimpered a bit, but he just rubbed his hand on her back in a soothing motion until she managed to rise from the bed. 

There were a few people between her and the edge of the bed, so she just stood on unsteady feet and stepped over the footboard in a maneuver that had started feeling familiar. When she picked up her phone from where it had been charging on the nightstand, she noticed a few text messages, but wasn’t able to read them since she didn’t have her glasses on. 

Steve was exiting the bathroom in his running clothes though, so she clicked on what she hoped was the notifications so that it would open and handed him the device, “Read it to me?”

“Morning to you too,” he said and hugged her. She nuzzled into the comfort the embrace offered but pulled away quickly as he said, “It’s from the senior group chat, Paulie said to remember it’s a church day.” 

“Fuck ‘s full uniform I forgot.” She leaned up to give Steve a chaste kiss since she hadn’t brushed her teeth yet, and went into the ensuite bathroom.

“Here, you can wear that tonight it’s clean, what’s full uniform mean?” Steve asked, taking the shirt she’d slept in from her as she pulled it off hastily. 

Cold from the sudden influx of air, she hastily got in the shower and started pressing what were hopefully the right buttons on the touchscreen to adjust the heat of the water, “you know the porn Catholic school uniform? It’s like that but ugly.”

“Can’t be that bad,” he said, watching her as she moved under the stream of water as quickly as she could so she’d be out faster.

“It’s terrible, close the door for me. I don’t wanna wake everyone up. Jay music, please? Real low.” JARVIS put something to play in the speakers around the shower, upbeat and quiet thankfully. 

“We’re up, don’t worry,” Natasha said and ambled towards the toilet so she could pee. Well, it resembled more of a zombie walk but Sofia wasn’t about to point it out. 

“Sorr-fuck that’s cold.” She said but was only given a grumble in response from the redhead. 

JARVIS, like the saint that he was, adjusted the water temperature until it was just a little too hot to be comfortable, and she sighed in relief. 

“You can’t be late, what do you need?” Natasha asked after a second, her accent showing through her sleepiness. 

Sofia didn’t hear her for a second, the warm water falling over her and pulling her towards sleep but after a second forced herself to grab the body wash and say, “Uhh, can you put the flat iron on for me? And do you know where my vest is?” 

“You don’t have time to do your hair.” Natasha deadpanned, looking at Sofia through the mirror. 

“I know, but the nuns are gonna be there, and I don’t even know where my corset is- fucking shit.” 

“The back of your top drawer in the closet,” Natasha said as she pulled out her toothbrush, which wasn’t reasonable in Sofia’s opinion, but she wasn’t going to say anything, especially as the alpha pulled out her own and gave it to her with toothpaste on it. 

“Thank you so, so much,” Sofia said and rinsed the soap from her hands so she could start brushing her teeth. When she was done, she passed it to Steve who put the top back on it for her and put it away. A few minutes later, she got out of the shower as Thor, the only morning person in the pack, came in to give her a hug and use the bathroom. 

He let out a low, rumbling purr that pulled a content sigh from her. “Gonna live here,” she mumbled into his bare chest, a purr rising in her own chest. 

“After school, future Mrs. Stark,” Tony said as he came in, pointedly tapping at her cast. 

Sofia grumbled, but let Thor go so she could shoot Tony a dirty look. 

“Your cream’s on the counter by the door.” He said, and Sofia nodded her thanks and went so she could start putting the lotion on. 

Sam stumbled in just as Thor walked out, and from what Sofia could see, looked between her and some spot at the wall twice before saying, “Sofia you’re naked.”

A few seconds filled with her incredulous silence passed before she said, “I didn’t notice.” 

She was pretty sure Sam narrowed his eyes, but without her glasses, he was just a blur. “Anyways, I’ll get your undies, what do you want?” 

“For you to know how amazing you are.” 

“You’re getting lingerie then,” Sam shouted. 

“No, wait,” she said, knowing full well the contents of her underwear drawer, “I want the white bra with the little bow in the middle, its kinda ugly but not ugly, and boyshorts please, and a pair of shorts from the second drawe-oh and in the _back_ back of the top drawer there should be a beige corset, and wait I need knee highs. Thank you, Sammy,” she said then closed the door behind Tony. 

Sam came in a minute later, with a knock on the door to let her know as she was rinsing her hands. 

“You’re absolutely amazing, thank you so much,” she reached up both of her hands and cupped his cheeks so she wouldn’t have to look for his lips to kiss him. 

“I know, I’m gonna put the stuff next to your cream. Why the corset?” 

“Full uniform’s a corset, button down, a vest, and heels,” Sofia said and started getting dressed, leaving the corset for after her hair and makeup was done. She fumbled with the hooks on her bra, and gave Natasha a look she hoped came off as grateful when she felt the alpha’s slim fingers take over for her. 

When she was done, Sofia pulled her hair from the bun it had been in since the night before, sectioned it, brushed it out quickly, and started to go over it with the flat iron. 

“Just cause it’s gotta be straight doesn’t mean it’s gotta be flat,” she told her blur of a reflection. 

“Alright, raise the volume Jay we got shit to do.” JARVIS raised the volume to the point where she could just barely hear herself think, for which she was grateful. 

Well, she was grateful for it until Natasha came in as she was shouting “Christian Dior dior, when it rains it pours, she like the way that I,” into her flat iron. 

“You know that your flat iron is for your hair right? It can’t do much good as a microphone.” 

“I’m silently judging you because now the music is paused.” 

“And I’m judging you not silently, c’mon I’ll do your hair so you can start your makeup,” Natasha said and hugged Sofia lightly from behind. 

“Thank God, I was gonna do it in the car, lemme sit first though.” Natasha nodded and grabbed the box with Sofia’s makeup in it, then put it next to the sink while the omega got up and sat crisscrossed apple sauce inside it. 

This close to the mirror, her face was still blurry, but nowhere near as much as it had been before, so she got to work quickly after Natasha confirmed that the tube in her hand was primer. JARVIS unpaused the music without her having asked, and she and Natasha settled into an easy rhythm. 

Part of Sofia wanted to bask in the sickeningly domestic morning, and the other part of her wanted to vomit at the cliche of it all, but she didn’t have time for either as she grabbed her foundation. 

“Wait,” she said, making the music pause instantly, “where’s Tobias?” 

“The fuck is Tobias?” Clint asked, rubbing his eyes as he walked into the bathroom, “Wait why’s there an omega in the sink? Sofia, why are you in the sink?” 

Sofia looked at Clint, and shrugged, “Only way I’m not a blur, just wash your hands in the kitchen.” 

Natasha seemed to be more concerned with Tobias though and stopped from where she was resectioning Sofia’s hair. 

“Tobias?”

“Yeah, the eggy thingy, he’s pink I think, might be kinda purplish, I can't find him,” she continued, rummaging through the large container of makeup that a binge watching session of _Dance Moms_ had made her get a few years ago. 

“Your beauty blender?” Natasha asked as the sound of Clint peeing filled the bathroom. Sofia would have been slightly shocked at how loud it was, but Natasha had pressed the beauty blender into her hand, so she had more important things to do. 

“Thank you,” she said in a singsong voice, and the music started back up. 

“I hate to get the seats in the bens wet-” she sang out as she started her makeup in earnest, and Sam came into the bathroom to sing the rest of the line with her, “but that’s how good your ass is.” 

Behind her, Clint was walking with his arms up the way surgeons in television shows did, and muttering about omegas in sinks not letting him was his hands, and about how he missed the bathroom upstate. No one paid him any mind though, as Sofia continued to sing the song into the mascara tube until Natasha tapped her on the shoulder and said through her laughter, “I’m gonna burn you if you don’t stop dancing.” 

“I’ll gladly be burned ‘cause, I love it when you gimme head I hate it when you give me-no? Okay, I’ll stop dancing, but I have no clue how to do mascara with this cast.” 

Natasha gave an amused and undignified snort and said, “Well figure it out, and please stop setting your face I don’t think you’ll be able to smile if you put anymore setting powder on.”

“Look Nat,” she said, even as she started to put the mascara on, “if the nuns don’t like the makeup I’ll be in even more shit with Ms. Bitch, and I don’t know what time they're coming.”

“Okay then,” Natasha said, and pushed down on her shoulders so she’d hunch a bit, “I’m gonna do your baby hairs and you’re done.”

“Awesome, thanks again.” 

“Steve found your uniform and I think he’s done ironing by now, and don’t worry about it. It’s what we do for each other.” Sofia felt a rush of love flow through the mating bond at that, and once Natasha had finished her hair, the first thing she did was turn back to kiss the other female, those dreaded three words rising up in her throat. 

Natasha kept it short and brief, for which Sofia was only a bit thankful. “No more kissing, wash your hands, and get dressed.”

“But I love kissing,” she whined a bit. 

“Later Sofia.” 

Sofia pouted but listened, and washed her hands. Someone had cleaned her glasses and left them on the counter for her, so she put them on before staring at her corset disdainfully. 

After a second, she slipped it on and fastened the front, but wasn’t able to tighten the back fully by herself, so she stuck her head out the door and smiled softly at Bruce who was sleeping like the dead. 

“Sam,” she hissed as quietly as she could to the male that was doing something on his phone, “help me out?” Sam came over, and she half turned so she could brace her hands on the counter. 

“Don’t worry, I’ll tell you if ‘s too much.” 

He still looked a bit dubious but started tightening the strings on the back. 

“C’mon, you’re stronger than that, make this corset your bitch Sammy.” She said and sucked her stomach in as tightly as possible. Sam delivered and tightened the corset to the point where she wasn’t able to breathe comfortably. 

  
v

“This good?” 

“Yup, if the nuns think I can breathe they’ll be annoyed.” She responded as he started tying it closed. 

“Sofia,” he said, and she pretended to not understand the exasperation as she turned around and pressed a kiss to his neck since she couldn’t reach his lips. 

Rather than bend down, he pinched the exposed skin of her thigh a bit to get her off of him so she’d start getting dressed. With an over exaggerated roll of the eyes, she went over to where Steve had laid out her uniform on the side of the bed. 

“In the closet - well not really, but what shoes do you want?” Clint shouted as she clumsily buttoned her shirt. 

“Uhh, I need heels but not the red bottoms,” it was really a tragedy that she couldn’t wear her newest heels that Pepper and Phil had given her as a mating gift a few days ago, but she didn’t want to go through the school day looking at the shoes that would be a blatant reminder the letter, “and nothing higher than four inches I think, well not lower than two but I don’t think I have more than two and - thanks so much,” Clint had come out with a pair of heels in one hand, and a pair of his own sneakers in the other. He leaned down to press a kiss to her forehead, put the heels on the floor facing her, and dropped the sneakers somewhere so he could finish buttoning her blouse for her. 

“Thanks again, I’m gonna try to get Bruce to take it off of me this weekend.” 

“Even I know it’s too soon,” Clint snorted, then a bit softer, “don’t worry about it, really.” 

“Do you uhh?” He asked, nodding towards the box with the collar in it as he helped her slide her skirt up. Sofia nodded, and after he buttoned and zipped her skirt, he went to get it for her while she stepped into her heels. 

He came up behind her and she obligingly pulled her hair out of the way as he ran a hand over her still sensitive neck before putting the collar on her.

When she got to the elevator, the others were waiting for her still in their sleep clothes aside from Steve, Bucky, and Sam who looked like they were going to go on their morning run soon. It reminded her of a twisted version of a show from the nineteen-fifties, especially as Tony adjusted the vest she’d put on while walking and Thor helped her slip her backpack over a shoulder. 

“Thank you, thank you, I love you,” she said as Bucky pointedly slipped a protein bar into the side of her backpack and an iced coffee into her left hand, she repeated the feared three words to each of her mates as she kissed them goodbye, the elevator doors open behind her. Just as she stepped in, Bruce came stumbling from the room, still half asleep, and she leaned up to kiss his cheek and say it to him too. 

“Love you Sofie,” he returned, then rested his head against Steve’s shoulder. 

She didn’t realize what she said until the elevator doors closed right after Natasha had mechanically slid her phone into the pocket inside her vest. 

The majority of her school day was spent trying to fight with writing with her right hand in the cast and trying to write with her left hand, all while in a mild state of panic. 

Sister Gertrude didn’t say much to her, just the usual disdainful look and comment on her makeup, then at the end of the day when they filed into the Mother’s Day service, she occupied herself with wondering whether or not Rosana would be able to do her nails if her hand was still in the cast. 

Happy didn’t drive her to the appointment, but she found herself wishing he had once her feet started hurting halfway through the short walk. 

The alpha at the front desk just gestured for her to go straight to Dr. Weaver’s office. 

Sofia plopped herself down on the couch and announced, “I fucked up and my mom is a nazi and my dad is a bastard.” 

“That’s certainly a lot to unpack,” Dr. Weaver said, looking up from where she’d probably been pulling out Sofia’s file. 

“And I might have a UTI,” Sofia finished. 

“Let’s talk about the UTI first,” Sofia nodded and waited for the doctor’s response, “I recommend apple cider vinegar, to help prevent, but try to find the pills recommended for omegas. It’s the same thing but it won’t suppress your appetite like regular ones. Unsweetened cranberry juice, water, and probiotics to treat. Find a urologist if it keeps up.” 

Sofia nodded again, a little relieved but still feeling like she was about to burst out of her skin. She had no clue how she was just supposed to go home and look at them, wondering if they’d say it back but not wanting to rush them, and worried that things would be weird-

“Now, I don’t think you could have permanently messed up, I’ve spoken to a few of your mates and there isn’t a lot I can see them not forgiving you for, so why don’t you tell me what happened?” 

Dr. Weaver was calm, and giving off that scent of _I’m a calm beta, you can trust me_ that was part of the reason she and Rose were such good friends. 

“I told them I love them.” 

“Okay, do you love them? Or did you say it out of reflex?” 

Sofia paused, looked towards the door, where she wanted to run away and hide, maybe just make a nest under Rose’s bed and ignore everything. 

“I think I meant it,” she said and fiddled with the ring of the collar. 

“Then it’s good that you said it and are expressing your emotions,” her therapist explained, looking at her as if town between calling her stupid or asking for a more in depth explanation. 

“No only Bruce said it back and now I look like a simp, Tabitha I can’t look like a simp.”

“Sofia, being vulnerable and emotional is a good thing, and you should do your best to communicate with your mates.”

Sofia blinked, tried not to roll her eyes, then, “If they bring it up I won’t change the topic.” 

“Okay, now what happened with your parents?” 

“So we did a test and put it into SHIELD ‘cause they literally have all of the DNA that has ever DNA’d in the history of ever ‘cause super secret spy people, and my mom is Argentinian and didn’t the nazis all run to like South and Central America? Like, aren’t Argentinians the Italians that ran away? Anyways she’s dead and my sperm donor left me to be an orphan and I know him and I think he either knows or hates me.” 

“And,” she added, “I think he knows but I don’t know if he knows that I think that he knows, ‘cause I think he knows that I know ‘cause I mean they hadda give the spit thingy to _someone_ in SHIELD?” 

“Does anyone else know about this?” 

Sofia’s immediate reaction was no, because Pepper hadn’t looked at her any differently, and she trusted them to not have looked at the envelope if they hadn’t needed to. Besides, Coulson was a secret agent and he was supposed to keep secrets for a living. 

“I told Liho,” she admitted, remembering how the now not so small kitten had looked up at her like she understood her. 

“The kitten you took to school with you?” 

“Well I couldn’t just leave her,” Sofia defended, tapping her nails against her thigh. 

“Like you feel your father left you?” 

Sofia blinked at Dr. Weaver. 

Dr. Weaver didn’t blink at her, gaze unfaltering under her offended look of disbelief. 

“That was so far outta pocket.” 

“I don’t think it was Sofia, you’ve obviously had some feelings about him for most of, if not all of your life. If it weren’t for him you would have had a home, maybe would have had a mother, wouldn’t have been in the shooting, possibly wouldn’t even be here because you wouldn’t have been exposed to drugs at such a young age.” 

One time, a few years ago, she, and Dayja had poured out shots and called out _To the mothers that mighta wanted us, and the fathers that probably never did_ before downing them and getting so drunk they cried in each other’s arms. 

Sofia very carefully made the choice not to tell Dr. Weaver that, or how the conversation had sent her into a drop a day or so later. 

Instead, she swallowed around the lump that had suddenly formed in her throat and promised, “I’ll talk to him about it.” 

“You should, I think it can help a lot. You don’t need to build a relationship with him, especially not a father and daughter relationship. I understand he’s mated?” 

“Yeah,” she sighed, chewing on the inside of her cheek, “he’s gay now. I mean that’s not bad, fuck I didn’t kiss a alpha until March, but I’ve been a straight kid’s experiment. It isn’t fun.” 

And now she was thinking of what Coulson had probably put her mother through.

“I need a drink,” she said, forgetting just who she was talking to until Dr. Weaver said, “Sofia,” in the tone that meant she was about to hear another spiel. 

“I know I know-” 

“I told you. Alcohol isn’t bad. Weed isn’t bad. You just can’t turn to getting intoxicated to avoid feeling the hard things. Unless you don’t think you can learn to drink and get high in moderation, I don’t see why I should recommend permanently cutting the two out.”

Sofia tried not to roll her eyes but failed spectacularly as the beta continued, “I really think you should look at the teen’s alcoholics anonymous groups I told you about. There are even some that are omegas only.” 

“I know,” she conceded after a tense second, “I- I’ll think about it,” she finished, running her tongue over her teeth in thought.

“I want you to actually think about it Sofia. I know some of these omegas and I’ve seen how it helped them.” 

She probably wouldn’t think about it. She barely wanted to talk about it with Dr. Weaver, much less some omegas who would run and tell everyone later on. 

De. Weaver sighed and started talking about the dead mother she’d never get to hug or meet. 

Apparently, there was a group for people that fit that description too. 

Maybe she could take a nap, it helped instead of drinking sometimes and she wouldn’t have to deal with her emotions for a few hours that way. 

Yeah, she decided, opening her mouth to reply to Dr. Weaver, a nap would be phenomenal. 

~~~~

“Ladies and your highness Natasha,” she announced, exiting the elevator, “I have tea.”

“Oh? I wanna know,” Clint called from his spot on the couch. 

“Your work dad is my _dad_ dad.” 

“Wait I thought Coulson was gay?” Clint asked, patting the spot next to him for her to sit down, then looked up at her as the words registered, “Oh shit he’s your dad?” 

“He wasn’t gay eighteen years and nine months ago,” she shrugged, trying not to laugh at the shock in his eyes or the way Tony was looking at her like she was more alien than Thor, “it musta been one of the new updates.” 

“You’re my ex’s step daughter,” Tony looked towards Sam like the other alpha would offer any help, but they were all looking between Sofia and Tony like they didn’t know what to do. 

“That’s def on the list of ‘things that aren’t illegal but feel like they should be’ and I have no clue how to respond to it, _shit_ when I called you daddy I did not foresee this” she admitted, not having realized the strange connection earlier in the day. 

Tony choked on air, and Clint snorted in laughter. 

She was in love with her step father’s ex-boyfriend. 

“You should tell ‘im,” Sam said, sitting on the couch next to her and offering her a bite of a sandwich. Refusing food from an alpha was rude and borderline disrespectful, so she nodded and leaned in to take a small bite. 

Sam was probably only offering because they weren’t sure if she’d eaten lunch or not. 

“I will,” she promised, kicking off her heels and sliding her vest off her shoulders. 

“It’s pro’lly why you said he smells weird,” Bucky offered, then, “family usually smells different sometimes, more if it’s close.” 

“Huh,” she said, remembering how unnerving his scent was to her, “I mean I knew but I didn’t-” she cut herself off with a shrug and put her head on Clint’s shoulder. 

“It happened to my elder sister,” Thor offered in an attempt to soothe, “she is far older than I and only recognized Loki because of his scent.” 

“Wait that’s kinda cute,” she said, bringing her feet to curl under her. 

“Not in the moment exactly,” Thor laughed, then went on, “Loki had been returning from one of his travels and noticed the strange alpha in mother’s rooms. Though she is a beta, many carriers both omega and beta alike seek refuge there, and it is seen ill form to intrude on such a space. Loki was rightly offended until Hela realized and pointed out their relationship.” 

“That sounds like a total shit show,” Clint muttered, and Sofia nodded in agreement. 

“Aye, Hela was supposed to leave immediately, but she smelled the kin scent on Loki and was reminded of the omega child she’d heard of during her travels.” 

“That’s so cute,” Sofia half gushed, then, “wait. You stopped Loki? A omega, from taking over the world, and then you let these people elect a cheeto?” 

Sure she’d known about Loki and the alien invasion, but the media had said he was an alpha, not an omega.

“First of all, Loki was a murderer Sofia,” Steve tried to defend, “seco-”

“And Trump’s a rapist, racist, xenopho-”

“The only one that didn’t vote for Hillary was Thor,” Steve rushed out, pointing an accusatory finger at Thor who put down his pop-tart and managed to look adequately offended. 

“It is not my fault you cannot have dual citizenship between Asgard and Midgard, if it’s anyone’s fault that Donald Trump was elected it’s Bucky’s.” 

“James,” Sofia said, following Thor’s accusatory gaze to a sheepish Bucky. 

“I didn’t mean to stop the assassination attempt, and Steve didn’t even vote he couldn’t find his ID, don’t just look at me.” 

“Steven,” Clint gasped, as scandalized as Sofia and Sam, the three of them watching the ferocious ping pong match. 

“Clint you helped me look.” 

“Clinton,” Sofia gasped this time, everyone’s surprised eyes on the blond. 

“Look he isn’t even a citizen I don’t know how it would have worked-”

“Excuse you I’m a citizen _now,_ unlike Thor.”

“I do not know why it keeps coming back to me.” 

“He’s your brother.” 

“It was a phase.” 

Clint leaned down to whisper conspiratorially to her, “I don’t think everyone goes through a world domination phase.”

“Right?” She answered in that same faux whisper, “Especially not someone else’s planet, that’s such a pick me move.” 

“What’s a pick me move?” 

“I’ll tell you when you’re older,” she promised. Clint nodded seriously before they both broke down into a fit of giggles. 

“I uh- I wanna know what happened,” she admitted a minute or so later, once everyone had started their own conversations and she was able to absentmindedly play with Clint’s fingers. 

“Get your laptop,” he suggested, “fuck knows you can find out from there.” 

She nodded and reached down to get her laptop from her bag. For all it needed to be abolished, ICE’s records were the most useful for her search. There was an entire database aimed at tracking documented immigrants, so if her mother had been able to come in the legal route, her name would be there.

There weren’t any results that she could see being her mother, so she started checking NYPD’s records instead. 

“They don’t document beta births if it’s a omega,” she said to Clint. 

The first thing that came up was a traffic ticket for running a red light. Sofia followed where that led her, and a few seconds of scrolling showed her a death certificate. 

Giving birth was hard on any carrier, but more so on betas than any omega, so Sofia assumed that her mother had died from complications when she saw that the date and time of death was a few days after her birthday, at least until her eyes landed on the cause of death. 

“Sis really offed herself,” Sofia said, hand flying to cover her open mouth. 

“I- are you supposed to be joking about this?” Clint asked, staring between her and the screen in front of them in confusion. 

The truth was, Sofia wanted to cry, but in the past few weeks, had cried so much she didn’t think she could cry anymore. 

Even knowing the harsh truth, it was impossible to deny that she was at least part of the reason her mother had died, and she couldn’t help but feel guilty because of it. 

A relationship with an alpha was addictive, it was the main reason that they were either supposed to enter some type of polygamous mating arrangement, or mate an omega. Alpha and beta relationships almost always ended with the beta suffering some sort of bond sickness or withdrawal when the alpha left, and during the relationship, they’d slowly become addicted to the alpha’s pheromones.

No matter what way she looked at it, the most probable cause was that her mother killed herself after the _keep your baby alive_ hormones left her body when she gave birth and the withdrawal induced depression hit too hard.

“I’m okay,” she sadi more to herself than Clint, and closed the laptop. She’d do more research later, but for now she wanted to soak up the affection and attention of those that she had with her. 

“C’mon it’s my turn for dinner, help me cut some shit up,” Natasha pulled her up from where she was leaning against Clint, and with a grateful smile, she followed. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love to hear from you guys so please let me know what you think or if you have any ideas for something you'd like to see.  
> Also, I mentioned in one of the last chapters of part one that Sofia's old friend is mated to Curtis from The Punisher. I'm not too sure whether I'll do it since I've never done anything for The Punisher, but if enough people want to read it I'll give it a shot.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 5/13/2020
> 
> Hey so I'm not dead I think I just underestimated how much work professors give at the end of the semester, but it's fine I've got one final left on Tuesday and that's it.

“Did you ever take a Plan B?” Peter asked from the doorway of Sofia’s makeshift office space. 

“Peter,” Sofia said slowly, putting her calculator down, “why are you asking about emergency contraceptives?” 

Sofia was pretty sure he wasn’t even old enough to get someone pregnant, but like omegas could get pregnant before their first heat if they’d already gotten their period, alphas could impregnate someone before they’d popped a knot so long as they were able to orgasm. 

At least she was pretty sure, she didn’t know much about alpha biology, and didn’t really want to think about Peter’s knot. 

“Uhh, no reason,” he stuttered, fidgeting, “just- just asking for a friend.” 

“Peter if you’re having-”

“No, no I promise it isn’t ‘cause of me it’s-”

Sofia cut him off, noticing the embarrassment radiating off of the boy, “It’ll make their next period light but take a test a few days after it’s done to check.” 

Peter nodded his thanks, but she didn’t let him leave, “No, come here, look you’re gonna take your friend to this place, it’s by the African Burial Ground okay? I think that’s the R or the A,” she scribbled the name of the place on the corner of a page in her notebook, it wasn’t the best place, but if Peter’s friend trusted him enough to go to him it was better than the place George had recommended, “put ‘er on the shot. It’s MJ right?” Peter nodded sheepishly, cheeks a bright red, but he still listened as she continued, “You’re gonna have to sign for her and if they ask if you’re together, say her parents put her under your supervision for school. It sucks ass, but it’s what my friend used to do and they’ll give it to you for free if you bring your school ID.” 

“I’ll ask but I don’t think she wants to go on anything like that, she said it was-”

“Pete,” she said, carefully putting the paper into his hand, “it sucks, but even if she’s with her parents, omegas can’t afford to get pregnant and condoms don’t always work. If you want, there’s a place closer to you in Queens but I think they’ll want money.” 

It sucked, and it was terrifying, but it was the only thing she could say to the pup. MJ was just lucky that she was with her parents, anytime an orphan went to a clinic like the one she was sending them to, the state immediately got a notification. 

She’d send them to one of the at home clinics that Dayja and George had frequented, but those weren’t state funded and ran on such limited resources that they couldn’t afford to help out someone that could go to somewhere else. 

“It’s gonna be ok,” she promised the boy. 

Peter fidgeted a bit, wringing his hands in front of him, then rushed out so quickly that Sofia barely understood him, “Also when you’re done can you make chocolate chip cookies?” 

Sofia narrowed her eyes, the tense aura having evaporated from the room with his request, “If Harley can send you in here to ask for cookies he can finish my homework while I start them.” 

Peter jumped up in excitement and turned to run out of her doorway. 

Harley showed up, a few seconds later, red cheeked and bouncing with the excitement of a toddler, “I’m here to do your homework.” 

She put her worksheet in her notebook, grabbed her pen, and handed it to him, bare toes rubbing against the carpet. 

Her desk was directly in front of the door, facing an electric fireplace that she had off, and to the left of the fireplace was a nesting couch and coffee table set that seemed to always call her name, resting on the opposite wall. They’d carefully made the choice not to put a television in her office when converting the former unusually large utility closet into what was now her space. 

The walls were a soothing beige color that she found easy to ignore, and the carpet was a soft, light blue thing that she wanted to sleep on. Her desk was easily twice the size of the one she’d had in her old room and had a white glass top that was basically a tablet and could go clear with the touch of a button. 

Sofia’s favorite part was the rolling chair, even if it got caught on the carpet sometimes. 

“Here you go,” she handed him the notebook and got up from the desk. Between being around Tony and his already advanced classes, Harley’s math level was far higher than hers, even though she was technically grades above him. Peter was in a similar situation, but what he knew about Calculus was a result of informal education rather than formal schooling backed up by practice. 

He led the way down the hall to the dining room that was rarely used, then turned toward the kitchen. Unlike most of the space, the dining room seemed borderline antique, yet fit remarkably well, with a large oakwood table, similarly crafted seats, and a centerpiece made of bright blue and yellow flowers she couldn’t name. In the far corner was a spiral staircase that led down to the living room and bar area. 

The kitchen was a large, open space, with a refrigerator on the wall to the right, a stove not far from it, and large, light gray cabinets all around. There was a breakfast bar with the same black and gray marble design as the counters. 

Above the stove and the part of the counter space that was on the right side of the wall, was a large window that overlooked the tops of most of the surrounding buildings. 

Harley went over to sit at the breakfast bar beside Peter and started to look through the little of her homework that she hadn’t gotten to. 

Going through the motions of life was clumsier than usual with her dominant hand casted, but she’d alternated with her left and right while writing, and if she was careful, she’d be able to make cookies just fine.

“You making the kids work?” Steve called, climbing the stairs. 

“Just a little,” she laughed, looking in one of the cabinets for the flour while Harley shouted, “Working us like slaves Stevie.” 

“Aww, not my sweet little omega,” he called out sarcastically, coming to the top of the stairs, “yeah, I can see it,” he snorted when he saw Sofia turn annoyed eyes on him. 

“Steve,” she gasped in outrage, “fine you can watch everyone eat the cookie dough.” 

Denying him the actual cookies could be seen as a sign of rejection, but making him wait until they were fully cooked would be seen as fun or teasing, so she’d be able to get away with that.

“Aww, I’m sorry, Sof,” he soothed, coming up behind her and wrapping his arms around her, then right before Peter and Harley’s sounds of disgust, nipped her ear sharply and said, “guess some people can’t handle the truth.” 

Sofia gasped in outrage and threw a handful of flour at him. 

Even his enhanced sense of alertness wasn’t good enough to alert him to Sofia’s intentions, and he was hit squarely in the back by an alarming amount of flour. 

He turned playfully angry eyes onto her, and she barely stopped herself from running away. Sure she’d have a small, near impossible chance of outrunning him if she tried, but she wasn’t really interested in getting pinned down in front of the pups, and she wanted the chocolate chip cookies. 

“Take it back.” 

“You threw flour at me.” 

“It’s your fault,” she defended, ignoring the smile in his bright blue eyes and holding the bag of flour defensively close. 

She only really needed a cup of flour for the cookies, the rest could be substituted by the corn starch Sam and Bruce used to make maizena some mornings. 

Steve probably didn’t know that though, and as he inched forward, it was evident that he thought her first priority would be saving enough flour for the cookies. 

What  _ she _ didn’t anticipate, was for him to rush forward and grab her hand, already loaded with another handful of flower, and jerk her hand back at her, making it fly all over her face. 

She shouted in alarm, and he let go of her hand to jump backward, giving her time to grab another handful and throw it at him.

Steve yelped in shock, then huffed in annoyance, and dumped the rest of the bag atop her head, sending her into a laughing fit that quickly delved into a coughing fit interspersed with sneezes. Steve sneezed a few times and choked on the cloud of white air as well, but they were both laughing too hard to pay attention to it. 

“Pete I thought we sent you to ask for cookies?” Clint called out, making both her and Steve turn toward the staircase to see Thor giving Clint a piggyback ride. 

“Harley started it,” she and Steve said in chorus when Sam turned his raised brows on them. 

Harley squealed in indignation, raising his head from her homework to say, “Look I was put to work an’ alls I did was own up to it.” 

“Your accent is  _ so  _ thick,” she commented, looking away from Sam’s judgemental eyes and Clint’s playfully mournful ones. 

“Have you heard yourself talk when it’s just you and Bucky and Steve?” 

Sofia opened her mouth to fire a retort, looked at Steve, looked at where Sam was slowly nodding in her direction like she was a particularly daft toddler, looked back at Peter who was carefully avoiding eye contact, then made the decision not to respond to Harley. 

Steve, on the other hand, had other plans, and made an attempt to defend himself with “Ey I haven’t said johnny pump in months.” 

Sofia was certain that she wasn’t the only one that heard him carefully say  _ haven’t _ rather than  _ ain’t. _

“My floors,” Natasha dramatically exclaimed, coming up the stairs behind Sam, “just kidding I don’t give a fuck.” 

“I do,” Tony shouted frantically, then deflated, throwing an arm around Natasha’s shoulders, “just kidding I don’t give a fuck either.” 

Sofia rolled her eyes and started looking around for the corn starch so she could start the dry ingredients. 

She got most of her stuff out, then wet one of the kitchen towels that didn’t go with the curtain set to wipe a majority of the flour off of her face, and tossed it to Steve so he could do the same. 

The blond waved it off, choosing to wipe his face on the back of Tony’s black shirt. 

Tony didn’t seem too phased, the shirt was already covered in grease stains and had sporadic holes on it, so it was a lost cause anyway. 

“Are you making the child do your homework?” He asked instead, looking over Harley’s shoulder and probably correcting a few things. 

“Well Peter came in asking for cookies and I thought Harley was the one that sent him,” she gave Clint a semi accusing look but shrugged. A little math wouldn’t kill Harley. 

“It was Bruce’s idea,” Clint defended, pointing to Bruce from where he was still clinging to Thor’s back. 

“You can’t prove that.” 

“I’ve finally started rubbing off on him,” Natasha observed, picking at an invisible spot of dirt under her nail. 

“Aww, poor Bruce,” Bucky cooed, scratching the shorter male’s head and earning a smack on the arm in retribution.

“Done,” Harley exclaimed, closing her notebook with a flourish. 

“Thank you, Harley,” she called over her shoulder, setting aside the dry ingredients to start on the wet ones. 

“Hey,” Sam greeted softly as he came up behind her. 

She looked up at him and smiled, cheeks tinged pink from the foreign intensity of his gaze, “Hey.” 

“Make Steve clean it,” he suggested, holding the bowl steady for her so she could mix the wet and dry ingredients. 

Sofia rolled her eyes, looking over the disaster that was the kitchen, “I’ll help, I just wanted to get the cookies in the fridge.” 

Sam hummed and passed her a fork so she could start mixing. 

The others all gave her strange looks for preferring a fork to a whisk to make cookies, but at least Sam wouldn’t automatically hand her a whisk. 

He pressed a soft kiss to her lips that they both smiled into, only pulling away obligingly when Peter made a disgusted noise. 

“Can you give me the chocolate?” She asked instead of addressing the pup. 

Sam made a face at being sent on an errand but walked over to the other cabinet to get it for her anyway. The bag of chocolate chips had been opened a while ago, so he just unclipped it and poured a few cups in. 

She thanked him and finished mixing, put the dough in the fridge so it would set, and then watched as Sam made Steve get up and help her clean the kitchen. 

“This is your fault,” she told the blond once they’d finished cleaning and were wiping the remnants of the flour off of their feet to avoid tracking it everywhere. 

“I really don’t think it was.” 

“This is why you’re wrong.” 

She glared at Steve rather than answering, pointedly ignoring the smile tugging at his lips. 

“I’m showering first,” she smelled like flour and, oddly enough eggs, and though she’d just showered, there wasn’t any way she’d walk around like that or go to sleep without bathing again. 

“Shower in one of the pup’s bathrooms.” 

“ _ You _ can shower in one of the pup’s bathrooms,” no matter how much she tried to intervene, Harley and Peter both used two in one shampoo and conditioner sets. 

Sure, they were expensive two in ones, but they weren’t touching her hair if she had any choice.

“There’s always the downstairs showers,” Bucky offered teasingly. 

“Steve can use one,” Sofia countered. She tried to inch a little closer toward the hallway that would bring her back to the master bedroom. If she ran, she had the risk of one of them tackling her, and she hadn’t taken that risk yet, much less with the pups in the room. 

“How about, you just wait for me to get out of the shower,” she offered diplomatically. 

“But I wanna shower.” 

“But ladies first.” 

“That’s not how this works.” 

“Aren’t you supposed to be old fashioned?” 

The old comics had it wrong, if anyone was a little shit, it was Steve Rogers, and no one could convince her otherwise as he narrowed his eyes at her. 

He probably only wanted the master bath because of his specially ordered French soap. 

“Why don’t you two-”

“Please don’t finish that Tony,” Harley pleaded, but Sofia had heard enough and looked at Steve imploringly. 

“I’m setting the water.” 

Steve’s showers were scalding hot, and Sam had explained to her that the cold gave him too many flashbacks the one time she’d questioned it.

Sofia would either burn her skin off or use a two in one shampoo and conditioner. 

“Deal.” 

Steve smiled at her in a way that made her wonder if that had been his plan all along and interlocked their hands. 

“I feel like this was planned,” she mused, but still followed him to the bathroom and tugged at the bottom of his shirt when JARVIS turned on the water to Steve’s preferred temperature. 

“No, not really,” he mumbled, obligingly pulling his shirt over his head. 

“Well shit,” she pulled her own shirt over her head and pulled her leggings down with one hand as Steve pulled off his sweats. 

Steve blushed like a virgin that had never seen boobs before, and there was a brief flash of awkwardness before they both got into the shower. 

Sofia didn’t particularly love shower sex, she’d had it a handful of times in the time since she’d been at the tower, and even a few before, but someone almost always slipped, and one time Raya had accidentally gotten soap inside her. 

It was safe to say that after the less than optimal experience, Sofia had been suitably wary of shower sex. 

The water burned her a bit, but it wasn’t nearly as hot as she’d expected it to be. 

She started to rinse off the worst of the flour with the hot water, eyes trained on Steve’s form as he reached for the built in soap dispenser to the left. 

The shower was a dark granite, with clear glass on the right side of the main showerhead, and opposite it. There were at least five showerheads that she’d cared to count, three in a vertical line down the granite wall she’d come to refer to as the front of the shower, two large ones on the ceiling, and three more large ones lined up horizontally next to the myriad of soap, conditioner, and shampoo dispensers. 

There was a little alcove where razors and other things could be held, but unless Sofia jumped she couldn’t reach it so she kept her other essentials in her basket on the sleek, black glass shelves that were next to an imposingly large bathtub. 

Sofia was pretty sure the bathroom was larger than the entire living room in the orphanage. 

There was a slanted corner and another little bench that they used as shower seats, the slanted one in the front left corner of the shower, and the bench against the glass wall. 

JARVIS had turned on all of the shower heads automatically, and it felt more like an extremely hot calming rain than a shower, but Sofia wasn’t about to complain.

Steve helpfully reached over to put some of her shampoo in his hand, then after a slighitly nervous smile, she got the message and turned so he could start working it through her wet hair. 

His fingers rubbed firmly over her scruff as he tried to get the shampoo properly rubbed into her roots, and she let out a gasping moan without meaning to. 

Steve’s confidence and their familiarity with each other’s bodies took over just as she finished rinsing soap suds from his chest. 

He lifted her with a grip on her hips and pressed her against the warm glass wall of the shower, lips pressed against hers tentatively at first, then a little more forcefully as she started to nip at his bottom lip. 

She wrapped her arms and legs as tightly around him as she could, but his hold on her stayed firm, thumb rubbing over her tattoo gently. 

Her lips trailed down his jaw, kissing and nipping at the skin there. 

When she pressed her lips to the column of his throat, he sighed, “Fuck- yeah do it Sof,” urging her to bite him. 

She obliged, arousal pooling in her groin and nipples hardening from that alone. 

Her teeth sunk into his neck easily, smooth in a way that made her clench around nothing, his groan of arousal filling the air. 

It was rare to find an alpha that wanted an omega’s bond mark on their neck regularly refreshed, and Steve was the only one she knew that wanted her teeth in his neck without some sort of catch. 

“Oh God,” she sighed, lapping up the little bit of blood that escaped. Steve’s lips met hers languidly this time, arousal and pleasure flowing steadily from his side of the mating bond and straight into her where it amplified and sent itself back into Steve in a vicious cycle. 

He pushed her higher against the glass wall, making her scramble a bit, then jolt in surprise when his mouth slid over her nipple. 

Steve didn’t have much of a technique, she could tell from the way he alternated between long swipes of his tongue over her nipple and rolling it between his teeth. 

She didn’t mind, just tightened her good arm behind his neck, ignoring how awkward and clunky the cast was, and tried to gain purchase on his upper arm with her other hand. 

He looked up at her through his lashes, mouth kissing her breast wetly in a way that contrasted with the water from the shower still falling on them. Steve was far from a shy lover with her, but she’d seen how with the others he preferred not to take control most times. More often than not, it took him a few minutes to grow confident, his forebrain and hindbrain not always on the same page. 

Sofia didn’t care, and Steve had never brought it up so she didn’t either, she just hoped that he’d say something if he wanted her to take control, because she didn’t want to risk accidentally challenging him. 

Most of the hickies that had been on her chest were almost completely faded, but Steve had left enough red or blue blotches on her chest that they were almost back. 

“Wait,” she gasped, left hand tugging at the golden strands to get his attention, “the seat Stevie.” 

“Hu- oh good idea,” he stepped away from the glass wall and made the short walk to sit on the bench. 

There was no water coming down on them directly from here, but the space was hot enough that they still felt the steam from the shower. Sofia scrambled for purchase until they were both seated fairly comfortably, her knees on either side of his thighs. 

Steve reached down to slide a finger between her folds, and when she pushed down into him as a silent question for more, he nodded and slid a finger inside her, working her open thoroughly and sliding a second finger into her a few minutes later. 

“Ommy,” he rasped into her neck, and it would probably sting or hurt even, but she didn’t care, just slapped his shoulder so he would get the message and take his fingers out. When he did, she rocked herself down slowly onto him, taking her time to fully seat herself atop his girth. 

It burned unpleasantly and stung a bit in a way that hopefully didn’t mean he tore her, but she rocked into him anyway, but the way he whimpered, “Fuck Sof-  _ ommy _ ” into her temple made it worth it. 

Sofia didn’t have a mommy kink, or an ommy kink either, but when Steve had first whimpered the word a few days ago she found herself clenching around nothing in anticipation of hearing it again. 

Steve guided her with his hands on her hips once her knees started slipping, and she braced herself with a hand on each of his shoulders. 

It was quick and dirty and yet still somehow shockingly gentle, and when his knot locked she was filled with the sense of catharsis and calm that usually happened after orgasm. 

Steve wrapped his arms around her tightly, and she placed her palms down flat over his pecs, cheek against the flush skin between her hands. 

“So good Stevie, so good,” she tried to soothe once the knot started to go down. Steve loved sex just as much as the others, but like Bruce, he tended to get withdrawn and quiet afterward sometimes. 

Usually, she could scent whether or not he’d have a bad come down, but the steam in the shower made it hard to pick out the particulars in his scent, so she was relying on his reactions for the time being. 

“Shh, ‘m okay,” Steve tried to reassure her. She rocked down against him one last time to draw a pleased hiss from behind his teeth, then moved compliantly as he lifted her off of him. 

He sat her down on the seat next to him, and she puckered her lips to silently ask for a kiss that was immediately granted. 

They had to properly wash their bodies now, but Steve reached for the loofah she must have forgotten in the shower earlier with only a questioning look, then gently scrubbed the soapy loofah over her body. 

Her cheeks flushed with desire again, but they both knew they didn’t really have time. 

Steve’s pupils were blown to the point where only the thinnest line of blue irises was visible, and she pulled him up from where he’d been kneeling to wash her legs by the hair. 

When she kissed him, she felt his soapy hands wrap around her back again, then something happened as his grip loosened because of the conditioner dripping down her back, and the alpha must have slipped on the discarded loofah. 

The next thing she knew, there was a very resounding  _ thump, a _ nd shocked blue eyes were staring up at her. 

To their credit, neither of them started laughing until Sam rushed into the room, concerned eyes taking in how Steve still hadn’t gotten up and how Sofia was half covered in soap suds.

“I thought someone died but I’m just gonna take a picture,” Sam declared proudly, and in a very Gen-X fashion, fumbled with his pocket while Steve stared at him with wide, betrayed blue eyes. 

He tried to stand, but his foot caught a batch of soap suds, and he lost his balance a second time. 

At the last possible second, Sofia put her right foot on the edge of the seat to brace herself, then with her good hand, made a peace sign, puckered her lips up into a kissy face, and turned her head to look at Sam. 

It took Sam a while to get the picture, and she wasn’t sure why Steve didn’t just get up, but she was pretty sure the blond was just going along with the motions. 

“I’m sending this to the group chat,” Sam announced, then pocketed his phone and leaned against the counter, arms folded over his chest. 

Steve managed to successfully get to his feet and was shooting a disdainful look at their mate. 

“So it’s probably gonna be awkward but Pepper needs Tony to sign some things and Phil might be with her,” he said, shooting a sympathetic glance at Sofia. 

She shrugged nervously, not really knowing what else to say. Steve squeezed her shoulder, and she got up to start properly washing and condition her hair. 

Sam looked like he was about to say something, and he probably was, but he didn’t, just smiled and nodded before leaving. 

Steve and she finished showering in a comfortable pattern, touching each other gently on occasion. 

Because Pepper and Phil were supposed to come, she pulled on a nicer pair of leggings than she’d had on before, one of her own hoodies, and at the last second remembered to put on a bra. 

Steve was only wearing a pair of sweats and a t-shirt, and the others were dressed similarly, so she wouldn’t look underdressed. 

She looked at him as she zipped up the hoodie, he didn’t quite smell like he was about to have a bad come down, but he didn’t smell like he was in the best of moods. 

“You ok?” She asked quietly, brushing a hand over his arm as she went past him to where her hair products resided in the bathroom. 

Predictably, he followed her into the bathroom, but to her quiet surprise, he took her hairbrush and carefully started the long process of detangling it for her. 

“Thank you, Stevie,” she murmured. 

The bond made his unease palpable, but now, smelling the finer notes of his scent, she could tell that it was the start of one of those bad come downs and he’d been trying to hide it from her. 

Addressing it wouldn’t help much, so she just let him carefully detangle her hair, then when he gestured to it, passed him her hair cream. 

He rubbed a little more into her hair than she would usually do herself, but it would probably rub off on the pillow later that night. 

As he started brushing her hair again to make sure it distributed evenly, her eyes started to fall shut, only kept open because of her concern for the blond. 

Once he finished, they made their way back into the kitchen, her arm around his lower back and his over her shoulder. 

Sam offered him his seat, and Sofia steered Steve toward it, then stood as close as she could between his legs, arms wrapped around each other. 

“I’m okay,” he tried to reassure, “jus- just need a minute.”

“It’s okay,” she said in a smooth voice, trying to push as much positive emotion his way as possible, she rose to her toes, then whispered in his ear, “I love you.” 

He tightened his arms around her reflexively, then mumbled something unintelligible into her ear. 

Clint rose from his seat with a token protest, and then she heard him and Sam ambling around the kitchen, probably getting the cookies ready to bake. They’d eaten dinner not long after she’d gotten back from therapy, though eating dinner sometime before seven seemed to be a general rule for them, so she guessed it was habitual. 

They hadn’t really done anything too rough, so Steve should be okay soon, but she didn’t want to rush him, and knew that if anything the others would divert the pups’ attention away from them as well as Pepper and Phil’s. 

Steve didn’t move, just stood with his nose pressed into her hair and her face pressed into his chest. His scent lightened up gradually, and a few minutes later when the cookies were cool enough to plate, she put her hands on his cheeks to pull him away a bit. 

“You want some cookies baby? They’re all nice an’ hot,” Steve’s eyebrows furrowed in thought, but he jerked his chin down in a yes. He loved chocolate chip cookies, and sugary foods were the best way to help him out of his mood. 

To her right was the plate of cooling cookies, and she broke a piece of one off to press it against Steve’s lips. 

He smiled softly and parted his lips to accept the piece of cookie. 

Whatever the endorphin crash had done to him had left his clear blue eyes a bit cloudy, but as she fed him pieces of still steaming cookie, they started to clear up. 

_ “Sir Agent Coulson and Ms. Potts are requesting access to the penthouse,” _ JARVIS announced. Tony responded, and everyone except for Steve carefully kept their eyes off of Sofia. 

She didn’t say anything, just let out a quiet hum of reassurance so he’d know she was okay. 

That was the sight Phil and Pepper walked in on, her standing between Steve’s legs, Tony talking excitedly to the pups about some robot that they were supposed to be working on, Clint and Thor arguing about something they’d seen on  _ Dog Cops,  _ Sam trying to convince Natasha  _ not _ to throw a cookie at Clint for some reason or another, and Bruce just reading something on his tablet, silently enjoying the domestic chaos going on around him. 

“Hey Pep, Agent” Tony greeted when the sound of their footsteps coming up the stairs sounded through the kitchen. 

Sofia called out her greetings once the others had, not wanting to be rude. 

She couldn’t help but watch the alpha mates out of the corner of her eye, both dressed impeccably, Phil in a suit and Pepper in a white blouse and slacks. 

Steve must have picked up on whatever it was that she was feeling, and turned his head to press a kiss against her palm. 

“It’s okay,” he soothed, an echo of her earlier words to him. 

His eyes still had a hint of that cloudiness in them, and she was supposed to be taking care of  _ him  _ right now, but he was comforting her and-

Sofia took a deep breath, smiled, nodded at Pepper and Phil just so she wouldn’t seem rude, and kept her eyes on Steve until they left, quietly feeding the man bits of cookie. 

She’d talk to Phil, just not yet.    
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just to clarify because some people asked and I tried to fit it into the chapter but the wording just came out clunky, in this au I'm going off of the "can they have babies" or "do they have the same parts" so though Phil and Pepper are technically a man and a woman it's considered gay. 
> 
> As always, let me know what you think or if you have any ideas for the future, or if you wanna see her with someone in particular


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A dash of 5/13/2020 and 5/14/2020

Sam’s thumb stroked over her scruff, making her feel boneless and weightless at the same time, breath ghosting over her forehead. 

“You sure you’re good meeting the lawyers tomorrow?” He asked, and Sofia wanted to say no, she really did, but she just pulled on the hand on her waist so that Bruce would unconsciously snuggle closer, and nodded into Sam’s shoulder. 

~~~~

Since Sofia hadn’t wanted to go to Dr. Weaver for their usual Tuesday appointment since it’d been her first day back at school, they’d rescheduled for yesterday, which meant she had to go again today. 

Dr. Weaver made her cry a little, think a lot, and gave Sofia a look when she had to tell her therapist that she didn’t have a letter for her. The woman’s dark, bright eyes said,  _ did you not get the chance to write a letter or did you not want to think,  _ so rather than argue, Sofia spent the last half of the session writing a letter to herself before she’d ever had drugs.

“Doc?” She asked tentatively, looking up from the looseleaf paper in her lap. 

Dr. Weaver looked up at her from where she’d been looking at her own notes, and Sofia continued, “So yesterday Pepper came over right? And she said that I have to meet with the wedding planner and with the lawyer and we don’t even have a date but I still gotta meet with the lawyers and I don’t wanna.” 

“Are you scared they’ll judge you?” 

“Yes,” she blurted out, then thought a little more and elaborated. 

“How am I supposed to tell them that I sold my Adderall in the summer to get money to pay for the pups to play at Coney Island? Or how a while back I snorted some white shit and I still don’t know what it was? And if they ask if I’ve ever been arrested or dealt with cops?” Dr. Weaver gave her one of those silent, encouraging looks that felt strangely like a hug or encouraging pat on the back. 

The silent, encouraging look helped the words flow from her mouth in a nervous rush, “How do I tell them that ‘cause I was the white friend I made excuses ‘cause my friend couldn’t have the cops calling home or her dad would beat her and my other friend was black, the other wasn’t documented, and the other white girl either never went out with us or didn’t care? What about how I think there’s a police report with my name in it from the time I had to sneak out to go to Sunset and catch my friend’s sister out a window after she caught her dad touching her-” Sofia cut herself off, staring at the way her hand had clenched around the pen. 

She loved and trusted Lisa more than anyone else, but the beta never stepped up when they needed her, and Sofia’d been stuck getting the group of them out of shitty situations more times than she could count. 

One, memorable time was when she and Rose had gotten taken in. The cops had done a sweep of the trains just past midnight to look for orphan omegas and found her and Rose. They’d been stuck in holding cells, and the only reason they’d gotten out was because Sofia had put on her biggest sad face, and cried until the scent of her distress made one of the alpha officers physically sick. 

The same officer had driven them to Lisa’s house under the illusion that Sofia and Rose had been on their way to take Rose’s sick mother to the hospital because she didn’t speak English. 

In reality, they’d gone upstairs to Lisa’d apartment and gotten drunk enough that they didn’t have to dwell on the anxieties and fears of being in that holding cell. 

“Sofia,” Dr. Weaver said slowly, interrupting Sofia’s quick descent into an anxiety attack, “I’m sure that if you told them beforehand, rephrased it maybe, but still tell them beforehand, they’ll understand. They’re superheroes Sofia, but they still have their pasts.” 

Sofia tapped her nail against her front two teeth, they were nearly grown out, so she should probably go back to Rosana soon, but, “Sofia, two of them were full time assassins, one of them was a part time assassin, they all have their pasts. They won’t judge you for selling drugs to make sure little kids have a fun summer, or for stepping up because your friends were scared of the cops.” 

Sofia turned wide eyes up at the beta, clinging to every word she said. 

“Honestly,” Dr. Weaver continued, “if you tell them first, or at least give them a gist of what they might hear I think you’ll be okay.” 

“Okay, that makes sense.”

Dr. Weaver didn’t elaborate, and Sofia went back to trying to write something. 

Happy would be picking her up from the therapist’s office to drive her home so they could eat an early dinner and then meet with the lawyers at seven-thirty. 

Sofia really just wished she could go home and take a nap. 

She finished the letter, and if she cried a little, Dr. Weaver didn’t say anything to her. She didn’t mention it either. 

Happy was waiting for her outside, and Sam’s smile greeted her when she opened the door. 

“Hey,” she greeted the alpha, in the front seat Happy didn’t react, just started driving once she’d shut her door. 

Sofia wasn’t sure if he just didn’t want to look unprofessional speaking to her, or if he was still annoyed at having had to pick her and Ethan up from Harlem at three in the morning. 

“Here sweat pea,” Sam said, pulling out a chopped cheese prepared exactly how she liked it. 

Instead of responding, she pressed a kiss to his lips, then pulled away with a pout when he didn’t seem intent on deepening it. 

Sofia had no clue how she was supposed to eat this when she’d been munching on chips throughout the day, but she didn’t want to be rude, “Thanks Sam, share with me?” 

The alpha gave her a look that said he was onto her, but let her mold herself to his side, and unwrapped half of the sandwich for her, taking the first bite. 

She would deny the way that made her hindbrain preen and urge her to bare her neck in submission until the day she died. 

“It’s those pills isn’t it?” 

“Don’t think so, but the store I went to said they’re gonna get the omega ones next week so Imma go back.” 

“Don’t know why you didn’t just get JARVIS to get them for you,” Sam commented, watching intently as Sofia took a bite. 

“Just don’t wanna fuck up dinner,” she grumbled, lying a bit. 

Sam gave her a look that said he didn’t quite believe her, but conceded with, “We’re gonna go out after, think Clint chose.” 

She smiled, but still barely resisted rolling her eyes at the strange form of overprotectiveness, “You know the birth control is gonna make me gain weight anyways right?” 

It would also probably make her depressed, but she and Dr. Weaver would deal with that later. 

They passed the sandwich back and forth in a way that made sure Sofia still ate a little more than the alpha, and they were done before reaching the tower, mid afternoon traffic clogging up most of the major roadways. 

Happy pulled into the underground garage, and then went off somewhere while Sofia walked toward the elevator, leaving Sam to carry her backpack. 

“So,” she announced once the elevator stopped on the penthouse floor, everyone but Tony was already in the living room, and that was because he was getting himself a drink, “before the lawyers get here.”

“Good, I was gonna ask. It’ll be okay no matter what we just don’t want any surprises,” Tony explained, coming into the living room. 

Sofia stepped out of her shoes and went to wedge herself in the space Thor had made between himself and Bucky. 

“Yup,” Sofia chuckled, nervousness burning in her chest and knotting her stomach, “so technically I was a drug dealer but not really, I’ve been taken into police custody three times not including the whole hacking the government thing, I have a video of me getting back at my ex with his sister on TikTok, my name is on a police report from when I was fifteen but I didn’t do anything, I think I’ve done cocaine, and I’ve dealt with the cops a bunch of times before.” 

Her rushed, jumbled up words were met with silence, and she looked around the room waiting for a response. 

Clint and Bucky both looked like they were considering laughing, but Tony just took a long sip of his drink and said, “You should probably take down the kiddie porn.” 

“Yeah that makes- absolutely right,” she stuttered out, pulling her phone out and opening TikTok so she could delete the video. She’d posted a bit since then, mostly stupid challenges, but it was her most liked video, and she regretted having to delete it almost as soon as it finished deleting. 

“Why do you only think it was cocaine?” Bruce asked, as if out of everything she’d said it was the most pressing issue. 

Sofia took in a deep breath, trying to recall the blur that was the night when Paulie’s cousin Alexander had offered her the baggie filled with white powder. She’d already been drunk, and it was at least a year ago, though she wasn’t sure exactly how long ago it was. 

“It was white,” she said decisively, and at that Clint choked on a snort, burying his face in Natasha’s shoulder. 

“I don’t think that’s the most concerning thing she said,” Sam argued, staring at Bruce like he had three heads. 

“Yeah,” Tony drawled, then, “about the police report,” he trailed off until Sofia picked up. 

“So something happened at my friend’s house and she needed me to help her out, so I had to get her sister and bring her to Lutheran,” Tony gave her a disapproving look at the lack of detail, but Sofia hadn’t even said anything to Rose about her fears the situation might come to light, and even worse hadn’t even spoken about it to Rose at all in months. 

“But the other three times, were one cause this girl’s family put up a pool in the street, in front of the projects, and the cops got called while I was in the pool,” she said, eager to change the subject, “I mostly got in trouble because of the orphanage’s agreement with the church and I was wearing shorts and a bathing suit bra.” It had been a fun day until then, when her, Jordan, Anna, Ethan, and Dayja had been stuffed into two cop cars and driven back to the orphanage soaking wet. 

Sofia took a deep breath, wondering if she had anything else to say, and marveling at the trainwreck that was her life. 

“Thank you for telling us,” Tony said as if torn between shaking her and shouting  _ you’re fucking eighteen when did you even have time,  _ pulling her over his knee for stupidity and carelessness that had happened years ago, or hiding her away in the nest, never to see the light of day or do  _ maybe cocaine _ again. 

“I’m going to give Pepper a heads up so she isn’t shocked either, the lawyers probably have their own file on you, so if there’s anything else you can’t remember they’ll find it so we’re ready,” Tony ran a hand over his face, took in a deep breath, then, “And in retrospect, we’ve all done cocaine except maybe Steve and Thor, so I’m just worried about the fact that you took a random drug.”

“My ex’s cousin offered it to me and he said his friend had gave it to him and he did it with me, so yeah.” 

“The  _ drug _ dealer ex?” Clint prompted just to get a reaction from her. 

And, he did, the burning in her cheeks intensified. While she didn’t regret dating Ponce, Paulie’s brother who was named after their mother’s home city, there was a lot of mess surrounding the situation that Sofia had never anticipated coming to bite her in the ass. 

“Before we get downstairs, did you deal for the family? If you were pressured into anything at all Sof-”

She cut Sam’s well meaning words off, “No, so uhh, usually I start Adderall around now, my school doesn’t think I need the extra time on tests so they just don’t give it to me, and I couldn’t even get through the state tests-,” she cut her own rambling off again, took in a deep breath, then, “I get the doctor to give it to me until September, take it until the Regents are done in June, and sell the rest. It  _ was _ to the family I was friends with, but a bunch of us would get together and pay for the pups to go on the rides at Coney Island,” she paused, then, “it was my idea.” 

Something heavy settled into the pit of her stomach, and she wasn’t sure what else to say. At least she could confidently say she’d tried, going as far as arguing with the dean at her school just to be refused. 

But, she also remembered the pups’ faces when her, Dayja, Jordan, and a few others had managed to somehow sign out all of the pups in the nursery and a few of the elementary schoolers. It had been a lot of paperwork, and the Den Alphas had looked at them like they were stupid when they’d told them they had been saving up for it, but it was worth it. 

Even better, they’d gone on the fourth of July and had stood around the boardwalk long enough so they could watch the fireworks. 

“People from Midgard are too concerned about appearances, but trust me elskan, all will be well. Go dress dear,” Thor urged, squeezing her knee gently. 

She huffed, but got up and headed towards the room anyways. 

“There’s clothes on the bed for you,” Natasha called to her back, and she turned to shout a “Thanks” over her shoulder. 

On the edge of their obnoxiously large bed were a pencil skirt and an old fashioned blouse, buttons made specifically so they wouldn’t pop because of her chest, and collar high enough that it would stop just at the base of her neck. 

Normally, if they hadn’t already been mated, the shirt’s collar would be more like a turtleneck despite the silk fabric. She had a few that went all the way up her neck, but wore them rarely, mainly for interviews back at the orphanage. But, none of them were nearly as expensive as the one that was laid out on the bed for her. 

She pulled the clothes on, and made sure she looked presentable, even though the tightness of the skirt contrasted with the obnoxiously modest cut of the shirt. Before going back downstairs, she put on the pair of heels she’d worn to school the day before.

They got into the elevator together, and that was when Sofia noticed that they were all dressed nicely, everyone in a suit except for her, though she was in the omega equivelant. It was strangely traditional compared to the way they usually interacted with each other. 

Most of her wanted to go back into the living room, curl up on someone’s lap, and forget about it all, but her more rational side was urging her to remember the training she’d gone through around middle school. 

Chin up, eyes down, shoulders back, wait for Tony or Natasha to tell her to speak first,  _ maybe _ one of the others, don’t make eye contact with the lawyers. 

She repeated the list over in her head as they headed into one of the Stark Industries floors. 

Tony led the way into a large conference room, the lawyers already waiting for them, seated on one side of the table. After Natasha had entered behind Tony, Clint pushed her gently to follow. 

Sofia took a steadying breath, then stepped into the room, two paces behind Natasha. Tony gestured for her to sit at his left, and Sofia took the seat as gracefully as possible, knowing that at any other meeting she’d probably be kneeling at his feet. 

To her pleasant surprise, the lawyers were only mildly terrifying. Pepper was sitting with them, and would add her input every now and then, same as Tony. 

Even better, Sofia was able to remember the basic protocol, refraining from doing anything rude or speaking out of turn. 

She managed to last over an hour of negotiations and conversations, as well as writing down all of her social media usernames without dying, or blushing so hard her face exploded. 

Most of the questions were along the lines of, “Have you ever had any nude photographs leaked?” to which after Tony nodded at her, she answered,, “No, none,” or, “Have you every been suspected of a crime?” which led to a conversation about the crimes she’d committed, the ones she’d been suspected of, and how she’d never  _ actually _ gotten caught for anything. 

That was, however, until the lawyer on Pepper’s right looked up from his notes to ask, “Do you have a set wedding date yet Alpha Stark?” 

In all honesty, she didn’t mind not having spoken about this before, and had assumed that it would be some time in at least a few months or a year. 

Tony seemed to be on a different page though, and said, “Well I was aiming for my birthday, thought it’d be a nice little gift.” 

He’d attempted to soften the declaration with a joke, but both Pepper and the lawyers looked torn between crying and throttling the brunette. 

“Well,” Pepper said slowly, “your birthday party brings in a lot of good publicity and some substantial donations to charities, what about the week after?” 

“My party is the twenty ninth, what about the thirtieth?” 

Sofia was seated at Tony’s left, with Steve to her other side. The blond’s hand was resting on her knee, with hers over it, and she felt him pinch the skin of her thigh in shock. 

She pinched the skin of his hand back, mind racing through all of the shock and amusement that was flowing from every side of the mating bond. 

“I think we’ll have to talk about the specifics later,” Pepper conceded, then, “but if that’s all I think we’re done here.” 

Steve and Bucky were the first of the pack to leave the room, and Sofia waited until Tony tapped her thigh to follow behind Bruce. 

The ten of them, Pepper included, crowded into the elevator. Clint slid her phone out of his jacket pocket, and she gave him a grateful smile, then tore her eyes off of him to look at Pepper who was near shouting, “Tony you can’t just plan a wedding in weeks, these things take time.” 

Part of Sofia wanted to flinch at the annoyance in her voice, but the other, less primal part of her was more amused than anything. 

Natasha on the other hand, looked too calm for Sofia’s comfort, to the point where she thought the redhead was going to kill Pepper. 

“Look between Natasha and maybe Sofia if I gave her some Adderall and like a monster or two, the wedding could be planned in a few days,” Pepper gave him a dubious look, but he shrugged, “she said she took it for tests, I believe ‘er.” 

“The wedding of the owner of and head of R&D in one of the biggest companies in the country cannot be planned in a few days, we need at least eight or ten months.” The elevator doors opened on the ground floor, and Tony followed Pepper out, the rest of the pack trailing behind them. 

Clint linked their arms together and tugged her toward him, “It’s not that far, just a couple blocks away, we’re gonna walk and look overdressed as fuck.” 

Pepper and Tony argued most of the way to the restaurant, her adamant that planning such a large wedding in such a short time wasn’t possible, and him stubbornly wanting to have a wedding as a birthday present. 

“Tony’s a catastrophe, but honestly everyone is,” the blond halfheartedly soothed.

“If it’s any consolation everyone except Bucky thinks you and Natasha can plan the wedding-”

“I didn’t say that,” Bucky called out before Sam could finish speaking, interrupting the other alpha. 

“You know what James?” Sam asked, faux threateningly, coming closer to Bucky while The others half paid attention to the commotion and half paid attention to Pepper and Tony. 

“What Samuel?” Bucky countered, stepping towards Sam. 

Sam raised his eyebrows in challenge, then shot forward to press a kiss to Bucky’s lips, pulling a laugh from both of them. 

“I think I have cavities,” Clint scoffed, but there was a soft look in his eye that said more than words or even the mating bond, so Sofia didn’t push it. 

Like Clint’d said, the restaurant wasn’t far, and they got there quickly, their table having been reserved, and set with utensils and menus before they got there. 

They weren’t sitting in the formal formation they’d been sitting in earlier, now Sofia was sitting between Clint and Bruce rather than Tony and Steve, idly playing with the archer’s fingers where they rested on her lap. 

A waiter and a waitress came around with two pitchers of water and set one down on each side of the table. 

Bruce was the only one to reach for the water and poured himself a glass. The waiter left, and the waitress stood to take their drink orders, everyone except Sofia and Bruce getting something alcoholic. 

If she didn’t look at the wine glasses dangling from Pepper and Natasha’s hands, she could force her strawberry lemonade to taste good. 

“So, this wedding,” Pepper said, the forced professionalism that had been evident in her tone absent now as she spoke, “do you even know what religion you’re gonna do it Tony?”

Sofia met Natasha’s eyes from across the table, and they seemed to agree that it was a fair question, even as Pepper plowed on, “You’ve got three Catholics, a Lutheran, mind you one Catholic and the Lutheran weren’t raised religiously, a Baptist, a Norse god, and Bucky’s Jewish.”

“Hey-” Tony interjected, “you forgot Natasha and Sofia.”

“Natasha and Sofia technically aren’t anything,” the alpha female offered, watching the way Clint was fighting back laughter with bemused eyes. 

“It’s okay Buck, we’ll make sure our only meat is pork,” Steve taunted in a faux soothing voice, almost making Sofia miss the way Pepper asked, “What are you even going to do with the hair-”

“You’re not shaving my head,” Sofia spoke up for what felt like the first time since they’d gotten into the conference room with the lawyers. 

Tony looked at her, then accused, “You don’t trust me.”

“I wouldn’t let  _ anyone _ shave my head,” she countered. Shaving an omega’s head after marriage was something that no one was sure where it originated from. Some people believed it was to signify letting go of the past so the omega could start anew with their mates, or that it had something to do with modesty like the Jewish tradition of a woman shaving her head the day after marriage. Some, more cynical people believed it was just because of how badly lice was passed around in most orphanages. Funnily enough, orphanages didn’t let omegas cut their hair more than a few inches a year, and the fines were so high that salons checked for bracelets before even considering pulling out scissors. 

Regardless, it was an old tradition that had started to die out, and Sofia would not be the person to bring it back if she had any say in the matter. 

“You think I’m gonna cut you don’t you-”

“You can  _ cut _ my hair,” Sofia conceded, having wanted to cut her hair for years now. 

“That’s a little better,” Tony said, but Pepper ignored their impromptu argument. 

“This has nothing to do with what you would do with it,” Pepper said. It was true, most omegas put the hair in a braid and gave it to their family. A few of her friends had either gave it to their mate’s parents, or kept it, but as far as she knew only Thor, Sam, and possibly Clint were in touch with their families. Even if she wanted to give it to someone, Sofia hadn’t met anyone yet. 

“She can give it to her friend, the girl with the flower name,” Tony dismissed, and part of Sofia preened at the fact that he at least remembered who Rose was. 

Most middle aged men on television didn’t remember anyone’s names, so she couldn’t hold not remembering specifics against Tony.

“Rose?”

“Yeah, and she could probably walk you down the aisle, and Rhodey can walk me. We can mix religions, do a fast, vows under a Chuppah, you guys can read one of the seven blessings, we’ll exchange swords, and the Christain religions aren’t too different so as long as we find a nondenominational priest and a rabbi everything else could be by the book.”

Everyone collectively blinked at Tony, wondering when he’d managed to put it all together. Personally, Sofia cursed herself even as she sent a flood of love through the bond toward him. 

She couldn’t imagine why she thought he’d spring it on them without thinking about it first, and now her hindbrain was kicking her forebrain for being irrational and untrusting. 

“Well, that’s a good way to combine religions,” Pepper quietly admitted, but the waitress came back to ask for their appetizer orders, so Tony didn’t have time to respond. 

Tony rambled off a list of appetizers, then proceed to instruct the waitress that they wanted two of each. 

There was more awkward silence after the female left, but it was broken by Natasha who said, “I want Phil and Hill,” while picking off an invisible speck of dust from the table. 

Sofia felt a curious sort of feeling coming from the redhead and sent back a feeling of reassurance. She had issues with the male, sure, but she knew he was basically family to Natasha and Clint. 

“Are you really gonna make me call my brother?” Clint shot back, half horrified. 

“Well you can’t avoid him forever-”

“He stole my dog-”

“You gave him that dog-”

Natasha and Clint kept on with their bickering, but Bucky had gotten a contemplative look on his face so Sofia looked toward him instead. 

“Becca’s got a grandkid, pretty sure he’s a omega,” he scratched at the side of his face like he wasn’t sure, then perked up, “but I’m taking Harley or Peter.” 

“I’m taking Peter,” Steve countered, then when Bucky looked at him questioningly, continued, “now  _ you  _ have to teach Harley to dance.”

Bucky blinked, then looked down at his metal hand and cursed. 

With a wedding for such a large war pack like this, the alphas would each choosing a person, collectively their chosen people would make up the bridesmaids and groomsbreeders. Like Steve had said, they would also have to take the role of making sure the people they appointed would be ready for the wedding and aware of their responsibilities. 

“I claim my brother Loki and Alpha Darcy,” Thor announced, pointedly sipping his strawberry daiquiri. 

“Don’t look at me, I’m one of six from  _ this _ century,” Sam said, palms up to show his innocence. 

“Well I guess I’ll take Jane and that wizard I went to school with,” Bruce groused as Sofia picked at an errant cuticle on his hand. 

“Why did you go to school with a wizard and please tell me their name is Alex or Justin.” 

“His name is Stephen,” Bruce said, looking at Sofia like she had three heads, paused, then, “but his last name is Strange.”

“I’m not going to lie, I probably would have bullied him,” she confessed, drawing a laugh out of the alpha. 

“He’s kind of an asshole, so he’d probably deserve it,” Bruce said, smiling in a shy way that made her want to kiss him. 

“I’m taking Pepper and Rhodey’s little brother,” Tony piped up, smiling cheekily at Pepper. 

“Guess I’ll take Sharon? Or one of your sisters got another grandkid for me? Steve asked, looking like he was trying to mentally do calculus. 

“Think the other carrier’s Elizabeth’s grandkid, but she’s living with her dad, she’s a dick, won’t let ‘er come,” Bucky’s amusement was palpable, even without the bond thrumming between them. She watched as Steve’s eyebrows furrowed, her eyes torn to the two waitresses that had come with trays, their appetizers steaming hot. 

“The Howlies should have a grandkid for me,” Steve settled, ignoring Bucky’s look in favor of taking a mozzarella stick off of a plate. 

Clint looked at Sofia, silently commenting on Bucky and Steve’s antics, then pushed a few mozzarella sticks onto her plate, waiting for the rest of the food to be passed from the other end of the table. 

“You could always take Sharon,” Clint offered in an attempt to instigate, “but every time she sees you she smells like she wants to fuck so probably not.”

Simultaneously, like they were in a coming of age movie, their eyes all turned to Steve who sputtered out, “I- I don’t wanna fuck Sharon.” 

Pepper drew them out of the petty faux argument, “So we’ve mostly got the groomsbreeders and bridesmaids down, what about the rest of the wedding party, the ring bearer, flowerpup, and I guess whoever’s going to carry in the swords.” 

“Well since someone is making me call my brother, we can take his two kids.”

Sam added onto Clint’s offer, “My sister just pupped this winter, and I’m sure I’ve got enough nieces or nephews.” 

“Laura’s pregnant,” Natasha added as Clint forked some fried eggplant onto Sofia’s plate.

“Don’t think she’s due for a while though,” Clint rebutted. 

“Yeah, she’s naming her Natasha.”

“Why is my niece being named after you?” 

Everyone ignored Clint as Tony started talking again, though he kept glancing at Natasha as Sofia tried to placate him by patting his thigh with her hand, having given up on Bruce’s impromptu manicure. 

“And my suit guy is friends with a wedding designer, their people should be able to make the dresses by then,” Tony explained, further solidifying Sofia’s idea that he’d planned it out and forgotten to tell them. 

As she took a bite of a piece of fried egg plant, she let her mind wander. So far, it was as if one change kept happening directly after another, and she realized that she’d never even thought about her wedding dresses. 

She’d wear the first one for the ceremonial part of the wedding, it would be a corsetted dress with a large skirt, then to symbolize maturity, for the reception she would change into something simpler. Like cutting hair, it was an old tradition that wasn’t too popular anymore.

Still, it all felt so surreal. 

She wasn’t even sure that Rose wanted to walk her down the aisle or if she wanted to meet all of these new people that would be so integral to her wedding. 

Rather than actively participate in the conversation, Sofia passed the fried eggplant back onto Clint’s plate, not enjoying the strange crunch of the vegetable. 

Clint rolled his eyes at her and passed her a piece of bread with tomato and other green things on top of it. 

“Don’t look at it like that, take a bite,” Clint scolded gently, then raised an eyebrow at her to prompt her to take the bite. 

She took a bite, then glared at Clint when she ended up enjoying it. 

Across the table from her, Pepper shrugged, silently admitting that Tony’d figured out a good chunk of the wedding, then, “I’ll call my wedding planner tomorrow, and you see if you can get a fitting for her on Saturday.” 

“What do you wanna eat?” Clint asked, picking up the menu for the first time. 

“Uhh, pasta?” She asked, leaning her head on his arm to look at the menu.

“What kind?”

“White,” she said, looking at the pasta options, not too sure what the Italian words meant. 

“Think this one’s white,” he pointed to one, and Sofia shrugged halfheartedly, taking another bite out of the piece of bread Clint had given her, “Chicken?” 

She nodded, then looked at Tony, who was looking at her, “Do you wanna do the ceremony in the church by the orphanage? I heard it’s really pretty.” 

Sofia shook her head, “No, the priest there doesn’t like me, but I think we’ll have to find an actual place for ceremony, I can’t see someone doing it in a church.” 

Tony opened his mouth to answer, closed it, opened it again, but was cut off by Steve’s dry, “Sounds like the church.” 

Clint snorted out a laugh, but nudged Sofia in the side so that she would start picking at the finger foods in front of her again. 

Sofia smiled up cheekily at Clint, getting an eye roll and kiss to her forehead in return.    
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey so I wanna start off with saying that I was raised Christain, but don't remember any of the weddings I've been to and don't know much about Judaism. I based a lot of this off of a blog I found where a woman did an interfaith wedding, and offending anyone is the last thing I wanna do. 
> 
> Let me know what you think or if you have any ideas, especially something you wanna see in the story.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 5/15/20

The day before during her study period she’d texted Rose to ask her to be in the wedding. She hadn’t ever brought up to her friend the possibility of the beta even being at her wedding, the fear that they wouldn’t be able to talk too strong. 

Rose had vehemently agreed to walk her down in place of her parents. Sofia felt bad for doubting her friend, but the guilt was overshadowed by her excitement as seeing her friend soon. 

Currently, she was sitting in the living room waiting for Rose with Bucky’s great grand niece Kimberly, Natasha’s friend from work Maria Hill, and surprisingly Loki. Most of her mates had gone off to do their own thing or were upstairs, so Liho was the only one in the room she was familiar with, and the black cat nearly asleep in her lap. 

They’d been the only ones able to make it to the tower on such short notice, everyone else scattered throughout the globe or stuck in prior obligations. 

None of them had spoken much. Kimberly and Sofia were somehow stuck between Loki and Maria, both of whom seemed tense because of the presence of the other. 

Out of everyone there, Maria was the oldest, especially since Loki was probably closer to Sofia’s age because of the different life spans on Asgard. It was a little odd, but she knew most of the others were older than her, so once everyone was together it shouldn’t be strange. 

Rose arrived just as Sofia considered drowning herself in the toilet to escape the tense air in the living room, elevator doors opening to show her standing awkwardly. 

“Wait there,” Maria instructed, and Rose stood there obediently as the rest of them got to their feet and got into the elevator. 

Rose tugged on her arm, then whispered harshly, “My mom wants to know where we’re going.” 

Sofia thought a bit, then settled on, “Jersey.” 

For the first time after they’d been introduced, Maria spoke directly to her, saying, “Staten Island.” 

Kimberly looked over at her, the girl young, sixteen or so if Bucky’s estimations were right, and Rose looked at her too, in unplanned unison, they said, “Jersey.” 

“Do you not know where we are going agent?” Loki asked, amusement tangible in his voice. 

Sofia mentally cursed, looking between the beta and omega, then again at Rose who seemed to be looking at Loki’s ass rather than taking in the situation at hand. 

“We’re going to Staten Island, people from New York City just don’t like it there,” Maria explained, looking as if she’d rather be killing Loki than driving him anywhere. 

She probably rather would, with the entire conflict that had occurred roughly eight years ago. 

Regardless, they were going to drive Sofia to drink. 

Once the elevator stopped, Maria left to grab the keys to the car Tony had instructed them to take. 

It was a big car, though not as big as the monstrosity Tony used when everyone traveled together. By her guess, it was at least three rows, but definitely more than two. 

Noticing how everyone looked toward her, Maria shrugged, “Can anyone else drive?” 

Blushing, Kimberly murmured, “I have a permit,” to which Rose agreed with a shrug. 

“You don’t want her to drive,” Rose said, gesturing at Sofia. 

“I know how to drive.” 

Maria looked between Rose and Sofia, then said to Rose and Kimberly, “One of you can drive back,” and unlocked the car. 

Without waiting for instruction, Loki went around to the passenger side, leaving the three girls to stare at the back seat as Maria got into the driver’s seat. It didn’t look like they’d need someone to sit in the far back, but she wasn’t sure.

“I’ll sit in the middle?” Sofia proposed, wondering what Kimberly would say. 

Kimberly shrugged, and Sofia pushed Rose so that she would slide into the seat behind Loki. 

Sofia scrambled in to sit beside her. The car, like most things, had been built with the size of alphas in mind, so the three carriers weren’t smushed in at all. 

Again, she found herself feeling bad. Part of her wanted to make sure that no one felt excluded, especially shy, wide eyed Kimberly, but for the most part, the awkwardness of the situation made Sofia want to hide somewhere. She’d never been good at social interaction with new peopleand was even worse at starting conversations without some form of prompting. 

Luckily enough, the majority of the awkwardness faded during the drive, though Loki and Maria were still tangibly uneasy due to the presence of the other. 

The tailor, dressmaker, suit maker combination store that Tony had sent them to didn’t look like anything Tony’s frequent at first glance. It took a large strip of land out of a shopping center, with a liquor store to the right and a Kmart on the left. 

Maria parked toward the middle of the parking lot, and they walked to the store, the three girls loosely in a group, Maria and Loki on each side of them. 

Above them, the mid May sun looked down on them with a vengeance that Sofia hadn’t anticipated that morning. She’d _just_ barely gotten out of the house without Sam insisting she put on a sweater, and she couldn’t imagine how much hotter it’d have felt if she had listened. Before she knew it, shorts would be a necessity. 

The door had a gold bell that rang loudly when Maria opened it, and the interior of the space looked nothing like the exterior. Red and black velvet lined the walls, and at the desk across from the door was a beta woman, probably around Maria’s age. 

“Hi, we have an appointment,” Sofia said, nervously fiddling with the hem of her shirt as she spoke. 

“Stark?” The woman’s green eyes lit up in a way that Sofia hadn’t expected. The hype around the Avengers had died down by a good amount, especially in the major parts of the city. Now, they went around New York without being accosted by the press, even Tony, for the most part, so she guessed that the curiosity was a result of the nature of their appointment than anything. 

Matings were personal, and not something that was often spoken about. Marriages on the other hand were loud, public displays, which meant that it would be the first time the public heard of Sofia’s existence in concern to the Starks. 

They’d touched on it yesterday with the lawyers, but Sofia hadn’t actually understood the implications of it until now. If the press crowded her school, her principal would probably suspend her, and that was only the start of her worries.

She nodded, and the woman left the desk to lead them to a door on the right of the room. 

On the other side of the door was a room that completely contrasted with the darkness of the first room, white and blue walls made all the brighter by windows she hadn’t noticed when looking at the space from the outside. 

“Take a seat, I’ll give you an hour or so since I know you don’t really have an idea yet, here are our bridesmaids’ dresses, and these books are our wedding dresses. I understand you’ll most likely be getting at least one wedding dress made?” The woman asked, gesturing to a long white couch with a tray of champagne glasses and a few black binders on the coffee table in front of it. 

“Yes, but nothing is set in stone,” Maria answered for her, shocking Sofia slightly. The woman didn’t seem like the protective type, so for her to speak up on Sofia’s behalf seemed unusual. 

“I was given instructions,” the beta defended once the receptionist left the room. 

Maria was the first to reach for a champagne glass, Rose the second, and after looking at the glass for probably too long, Sofia grabbed one. According to Dr. Weaver, she still wasn’t supposed to be drinking, but she hadn’t told Rose that yet. The beta would either be overly supportive, and not mention alcohol around her at all, or convince her to laugh it off and get drunk with her. 

If anything, she wouldn’t be getting drunk off a few glasses. 

Loki took a glass, then sat next to Rose, putting the three girls between him and Maria again. 

“I- I don’t know if I should,” Kimberly stuttered, cheeks bright red. 

Sofia did her best to smile encouragingly at the girl, she looked so much like Bucky that the resemblance was hard to miss, and she was tall, around Sofia’s height. What she knew of her personality clashed for the most part with her appearance. The girl seemed terrified of any sort of confrontation, and it made Sofia want to hide her away and protect her. 

“You don’t have to, but if you want one or two shouldn’t get you drunk,” she explained. Omegas had a naturally low alcohol tolerance, it was part of the reason most people were so hesitant to give them alcohol. 

Kimberly shrugged, then reached for a glass. 

“So do we have a color in mind?” Maria asked, looking pointedly at the binders in front of them. 

“Tony wanted light grey for the groomsbreeders and Rhodey, but that goes with a lot,” Sofia mused, then, “no orange and no dark green I guess.” 

Sofia hadn’t been able to look at anything orange without seeing bloodstains on it, and she didn’t want to risk it ruining her wedding. 

“That makes sense, do you want us in dresses or does it not matter?” She followed up, and Rose helpfully picked up the books of bridesmaids’ dresses to flip through them. 

“I don’t really care,” she mumbled, glancing at Loki. Omega males tended to be finicky about dresses, and she wouldn’t force him into one. Even worse, she was pretty sure one of the people that hadn’t been able to make it was an omega male, and she had no clue what he’d prefer. 

Loki shrugged vaguely and finished his champagne. 

“I will wear whatever, so long as it compliments my arse,” he said, and a second glass of champagne levitated into his hand. 

Rose looked like she wanted to agree, but instead asked, tone surprisingly annoyed, “Why are you speaking Spanish?” 

Sofia stared at her best friend like she’d gone crazy, but Loki responded before she could say something, “Is this better?” He asked slowly, then, “I was using Allspeak, an ability that allows whoever is listening to understand me in their most fluent tongue.” 

Rose flushed and narrowed her eyes, but didn’t respond to his words or the smirk that was playing along the edge of his lips. 

With Rose and Maria’s help, Kimberly’s shy input, and Loki’s outright veto of a few things, they managed to settle on a long, burgundy dress, and possibly with sleeves or a shawl. 

They hadn’t settled on a particular dress yet, but it was enough of a start that Maria pushed them to look at wedding gowns next. 

“I like this skirt,” she said, looking at the book Kimberly was holding. It was a nice, simple skirt with embroidered flowers trailing downward. 

“That’s a good start,” Maria encouraged. 

“What about the top of this one?” Loki asked, pointing to the book that he and Rose had been looking at. 

Sofia leaned over her friend’s lap to look at where he was indicating. Briefly, she hoped that Rose wasn’t going to try and start anything with the Asgardian, but she’d have to wait until later to have that conversation. 

The dress they were looking at was beautiful, corsetted with intricate designs of flowers and vines on the chest, and lace sleeves that went to the model’s forearm. 

“Oh I love that,” she said, gently pulling the book from his lap so she could show Maria and Kimberly. 

“Actually,” she mumbled, reaching for her engagement ring, “do you think they could do the lace on the arms kinda like this?” 

“Probably,” Maria mused, looking at where Kimberly held the ring gently. She opened her mouth to say something else but was interrupted by a knock on the door. 

“Hello,” a short, stout Italian beta female greeted. Behind her was another woman, younger and related to the first woman if the similarities in their scents were any indication. 

“Hi,” they greeted, all trying to clumsily stand at the same time. 

“No, no sit,” the woman chastised gently, walking to stand in front of the coffee table, then sitting on a stool Sofia hadn’t noticed before. 

“First, do you have my list?” She asked Sofia, making the omega nod and rifle through her purse for the folded sheet of paper Tony had pressed into her hands earlier. 

It was a list of the pack’s most recent measurements, the pups’, along with the measurements of nine of the people that would be in the wedding. 

There would be chances for people to come and get measured sometime next weekend. Then, all of the groomsbreeders and bridesmaids would be free, but a good amount of them had been able to measure themselves or had recently gotten measurements taken. 

The woman accepted the list with a warm smile, “My name is Madolina, me and you will sit and talk while my cousin measures them.”

“That works,” she agreed, reaching for another glass of champagne unconsciously. 

“Good, now who has been measured before?” She asked a bit louder, looking at the five of them. 

Loki nodded at Madolina and rose from the couch to walk to the center of the room, where a piece of raised flooring was standing proudly. 

As the others got measured, Sofia and Madolina sat down, leaning over the binders on the table and brainstorming ideas for Sofia’s first dress and the bridesmaids’ dresses. 

They got further along than Sofia would have anticipated, and by the time Sofia had to stand to get measured, they’d gotten a rough draft of her first dress, and some dresses that she would let the others choose from. 

“Hello, I’m Daniela,” Madolina’s cousin quietly introduced, and nodded at Sofia in question. 

Sofia smiled nervously and nodded, lifting her arms and lowering them as the beta instructed. 

The process didn’t take more than a few minutes, and by the time she was done, the others had narrowed it down to two dresses. 

“I was thinking we can leave it at these two and wait to ask the others,” Kimberly piped up, and Sofia nodded in understanding. Both of the dresses were beautiful, but she didn’t feel comfortable putting strangers in something they might not like. 

“That makes sense, I’ll try to do a group chat later, but I don’t have their numbers,” she told Kimberly, then asked Madolina, “do you think you can make both of these in maternity?” 

“Well,” the woman said, the hears in her mind obviously turning, “the ones in these books we do not make, we size, and buy, then tailor. Is the mother on the list?” 

Sofia nodded, and Madolina pulled the list from her apron pocket, “Laura Barton I think,” she said, barely remembering the name of Clint’s sister in law. 

She made a triumphant sound when she found the name on the list, “Ah, Laura, I think she is not too big, we can get her size up, and bring her in to fix.” 

“That works,” Maria mused, then leaned over to take pictures of the two dresses. 

“I have these two for you to try, but I do not think I have your color,” she wrote something down on the notepad she’d been writing on, and then gestured at Daniela, “Bring me these two from the back in their sizes.” 

Her cousin nodded and went out through the first door. 

Madolina flipped to another page in the binder, here the dresses were more modern, without the corset or large skirts. Something from here would probably be her second dress, which she’d change into after the ceremony and wear for the reception. 

She liked a few of these dresses, and to her pleasant surprise Kimberly spoke up enough that she was able to narrow it down to three rather than nearly ten. 

Daniela and someone else came back in armfuls of dresses and handed 

them out to everyone except Sofia, Loki getting four whereas everyone else got two. 

It wasn’t a surprise since most omega clothing was garnered toward females more than the males, and even more, Loki was the tallest omega Sofia had ever met. He towered over her and was probably close to Thor or Steve’s height, so either he’d be stuck in flats, need the dress lengthened somehow, or both. 

They were ushered over to the dressing rooms within the large room, and Madolina gestured to the three dresses they’d been considering, as well as a plain, sleeved dress cut similarly to the one that she’d been sketching with Sofia. 

Madolina left with her cousin this time, and Sofia scrolled through her phone, Instagram exploration halted by Rose opening the door a sliver to hiss out, “Sofia, Sofia help.” 

She nodded and went into the small dressing room with her friend. 

Rose just needed help with her zipper, but Sofia took the time to lean over her shoulder and hiss, “Do not fuck him unless you’re finished with Kiara.” 

“Who says I can’t do both?” Rose asked, prompting a slap to the side from the omega. 

Rose and Kiara’s relationship was moderately healthy. It was obvious to see that they were in love, but recently she’d noticed the distance between them, and Rose had told her not long ago that she’d caught the other beta cheating. 

“When Kiara hooked up because you were on a break you cried yourself to sleep. This is not that episode of _Friends_ you can’t just-”

“Okay, okay,” Rose dismissed, pulling away once Sofia finished with the zipper, the cast on her right hand making the job more difficult than necessary, “I’m supposed to see her soon, I’ll break up with her then, then I’ll come and fuck him.” 

“Still gonna be weird, but that’s way better,” Sofia settled, stepping away from the shorter girl. 

“Actually,” Rose mused, smoothing the dress down, “check my phone if she’s with her ex I’m just gonna fuck him today.” 

Sofia wanted to say something, but if Kiara was with her ex, it most likely meant that they were fucking, so she wouldn’t begrudge Rose that. 

She opened up her friend’s phone, then went to Snapchat to check the other girl’s girlfriend’s location, only to see that it had been turned off. Not wanting to be hasty, she checked her own phone to see that Kiara’s Bitmoji was standing next to another Bitmoji she didn’t recognize. 

“She’s with her ex right?” 

“I think so,” she showed Rose her phone, and something in Rose’s scent tightened with an indistinguishable emotion. 

By this point, Sofia knew that there wasn’t much she could do to help, but she squeezed her arms around her friend anyway. 

“It’s fine, I’ll be fine,” Rose mumbled, and after a second pushed Sofia away so they could leave the dressing room. 

“I see that we did not discuss what dress we would be putting on,” Loki said, noticing how his and Kimberly’s dresses were the dress with a deep cut V shaped neckline, close to a straight cut, and flared around the ankles. The dress Maria and Rose had on, however, was an off the shoulder dress with a more modest cut, was a bit tighter on the waist and hips, and if it weren’t for the slit up the thigh, would have started flowing around mid thigh. 

Kimberly made eye contact with her, then they both started laughing, Rose joining in quickly. Maria and Loki didn’t laugh, but the former smiled a little, and the latter let out a huff of air. 

“Kimberly and I will not be changing,” Loki announced, linking his arm with the other omega’s and standing in front of the mirror lined wall. 

“I don’t mind changing,” she heard Kimberly whisper, to which Loki responded, “I do.” 

Loki and Maria were having an unprompted staring contest when Madolina came in with Daniela and the other woman, carrying four similarly shaped but differently styled wedding dresses. 

Madolina had her go back into Rose’s dressing room to take off her clothes, then before letting her put anything on, brought her to the middle of the room to help her step into the underskirt. 

It was awkward, and Sofia’s cheeks flamed brightly the entire time, but everyone else went about their own business, taking pictures in each dress and comparing it. 

Lastly, Madolina pulled the actual dress over her head, and helped her to fasten the corset, “I don’t like it,” Madolina said, and they got Sofia out of the dress and corset, then replaced it with another dress. 

By the time Madolina found a dress that they both liked the shape of, everyone had tried on both dresses, and they were all putting their clothes on. 

The woman wrapped the tape measure around her upper arms, wrote something down, then looked skeptically at the bodice, “Take off your bra.”

Sofia listened after a minute or two, and threw it into the bench in Rose’s dressing room, even though her bra was strapless, cheeks burning the entire time. 

She should have had another glass of champagne when she had the chance. 

They were there for another twenty minutes or so, the strings of the corset being fiddled with and remeasured. 

At last, Madolina let her go back into the dressing room to redress. 

“Lunch?” Maria asked when she got out of the dressing room. 

Sofia nodded gratefully, then turned to where Madolina was talking with Daniela, “Go, go, cucciola, everything is handled. When I go to you next week I will bring some small dresses for you to try.” 

They said their thanks and loaded back into the car, Kimberly’s steps a little more unsteady than they had been the first time. 

“Kimberly,” Sofia said slowly once they got in the car, noticing the way the girl’s pupils were dilated, “are you intoxicated?” 

If there was one thing she could not do, it was bring a sixteen year old omega to their alpha great grand uncle drunk, especially when she was mated to the alpha great grand uncle. 

“She had about five,” Maria pitched in unhelpfully. 

“I like her,” Rose said, also extremely unhelpful. 

“This is what we’re going to do,” Sofia decided, glancing wearily at Maria. Though the woman had helped more than she could have imagined, she was also the only person in the car that Sofia worried would say something, “you’re gonna eat, and if the food doesn’t fix it when we get back you’re gonna cry motion sickness, say it gave you a migraine and you need to sleep. I’ll put you to lie down somewhere.” 

Kimberly nodded, and something akin to approval flashed in Loki’s eyes, but Sofia’s focus was on Kimberly. The girl didn’t look too drunk, but there was no telling how long her body would take to process the alcohol if it was her first time being drunk. 

“This is embarrassing,” Kimberly mumbled, words a little slurred. 

“So where are we going to eat?” Maria asked instead of addressing Kimberly. 

When no one answered, she looked at Rose in the rearview mirror, “Rose what do you want to eat?” 

Rose’s eyes widened at being put on the spot, and she shrugged, “I don’t know.” 

“Sofia?” 

Instead of answering, Sofia squeaked out a nervous, “Loki?”  


“This is the longest I have been in New York without trying to kill your pack.” 

“What about Mediterranean?” Rose asked, noticing the way Maria’s hands clenched on the steering wheel in the face of Loki’s attempt at humor. 

“I love Mediterranean, do you eat seafood?” Sofia said the last part to Kimberly, torn between laughing in shock and throwing herself out of the car. 

“I have to eat Kosher with my grandma.” 

Sofia nodded as if she understood, and Rose leaned over her to slap her on the knee, “Let’s do cheeseburgers then. What do you think Maria?” 

“Cheeseburgers sounds nice.” 

They wound up at some diner in Coney Island, though Sofia wasn’t sure why they didn’t just go to one closer to their original route. 

“Why are we in a cop car?” She asked, looking pointedly at the lack of letters on their car’s license plate. 

“What?” 

“There’s no letters, isn’t that what they do for the undercover cop cars?” Sofia asked, grabbing Kimberly’s hand once she got out of the car, worried the girl would fall. 

“It’s SHIELD issue,” Maria said in lieu of a proper answer. Sofia stifled a laugh, Kimberly’s hand tightening on her own anxiously. 

“You’re okay sweetie,” she soothed, taking in a breath of the salt smelling air, “breathe baby.”

This close to the ocean, the air was brisker than it was in other parts of the city, and though they were still far from walking distance, they could smell salt in the air, and it stung her lungs pleasurably.

The diner wasn’t overwhelmingly full, considering that it was still around lunchtime and there were a lot of construction workers in the area. The five of them bit comfortably into an oversized booth, Rose and Loki on one side with Maria, Sofia, and Kimberly on the other. 

A beta male brought over their menus and some silverware. Sofia skimmed the menu before settling on the burger section. 

She and Kimberly ended up both settling on a bacon cheeseburger, even though she asked the girl at least three times if she was sure about it. Part of her felt bad, but she didn’t really know any Jewish people, so her experience with religious dietary restrictions was limited to the few Muslim people she encountered. 

Most memorably, a beta girl that had graduated her high school a few years back. The poor girl’s period cravings were so bad that they drove her to unapologetically binge eat bacon every month. 

Rose had to explain the menu for Loki, and Sofia definitely didn’t miss the way her eyes clung to his lips each time they thinned in concentration or parted with the start of a word. 

Maria elbowed her side gently, and gestured to the phone she was holding in her lap. 

_Are you going to tell your friend he’s probably underage?_

Sofia’s eyes widened, and she comically scrambled for her phone. The last thing they needed was Rose in jail for the statutory rape of an alien prince.

_Sofia: You know how their lives are longer_

_Sofia: It’s cause they age different in the head_

_Sofia: So like I’m pretty sure he’s 17 or 18 cause I think he was 16 for the whole kill all humans thing_

_Rose: Fuck_

_Rose: Which one_

_Sofia: Idk_

Loki looked like he didn’t notice the way Rose was holding her phone in her lap to text, “Sorry it’s my mom,” she dismissed when Loki looked like he was about to ask her something. 

Rose sent a last text and put her phone on the seat beside her. 

_Rose: Fucking find out so I can suck his dick_

She typed out a text to Thor, asking Loki’s age and citing Maria’s nonexistent hesitance to let him drink alcohol, then didn’t send it, realizing that saying that depended on all of them lying. 

She settled on just telling Rose she wouldn’t be able to find out. Her friend gave her a dirty look after glancing at her phone again but went back to helping Loki sort through the menu. 

“I think I’ll eat the chicken tenders and french fries,” Loki announced, looking at Rose in a way that was meant to prompt her order in a teasing way. 

“Same, but I want curly fries and blue cheese,” Rose said, returning the look Loki was giving her in full force. 

Doing her best not to watch them creepily, Sofia noticed their silent communication and took note of what looked like their agreement. 

“I have to pee.” 

“As do I,” Loki intoned, then gracefully slid out the booth, Rose following behind him. 

One of the waitresses pointed them to the bathroom, and they disappeared together into the hopefully clean space. 

“I’m bringing home one of my mates’ nieces drunk, and another mate’s brother smelling like sex.” 

“Get some carbs into her and you’ll only have to deal with one of those things,” Maria pitched in. 

“At least she’s only nineteen,” Sofia sighed, desperately hoping that Thor wouldn’t flip out on her. 

~~~~

Thor didn’t flip out, and Kimberly was sober by the time they went into the pack’s living room. 

Thankfully, Rose and Loki smelled more like sated arousal than actual sex, which if someone didn’t know better could be taken as the both of them having masturbated after showering. 

On the flip side, if someone spent enough time around carriers after they’d had sex with each other, they’d quickly come to realize that the scent just meant there had been no orgasms that resulted in someone releasing inside of someone else. 

At the sight of her old owner, Liho perked up from where she was laying in Tony’s lap. Rose smiled nervously, not willing to go up to the alpha just for the sake of her old cat.

Liho looked away from Rose and slumped down on Tony’s lap again with a huff. 

Thor, like the overly affectionate himbo he was, came to wrap his arms tightly around Sofia, her toes skimming the floor as she returned the embrace. 

“Your pa should be here ‘round five,” Bucky told Kimberly gently, looking at the girl with the same apprehension she’d seen him look at Peter or Harley with once or twice. 

Tony either must have interpreted what Loki and Rose’s scents meant, or seen the way the girl was now standing awkwardly between the two omegas, and said, “You can leave when she leaves.” 

Kimberly, Bucky, and Steve talked quietly in an intimate way that made her thankful the omega had sobered up, and guilty that she’d considered hiding the omega from her great grand uncle. 

Hill had to leave, and since Sofia was close enough, she went in for a hug that was awkward at first, but quickly dissolved into a comforting one, “Thank you so much,” she told the beta, who just patted her back lightly. 

Rose sat a little closer to Sofia once Thor had made his intention to speak to Loki clearer. 

“He said he’s eighteen or nineteen here,” Rose mumbled into her ear.

Sofia’s worries over what would happen to her friend abated greatly, and she sighed, basking in the simplicity that was the end of their day.   
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, don't be afraid to let me know what you think or if there's anything you wanna see. The other day I finally fixed up my [Tumblr](https://so--fucking--bored.tumblr.com) so you can send an ask there if you want, but fair warning I'm still working the kinks out and getting the hang of it so its a mess right now.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 5/17/2020
> 
> There's a possibility that this chapter is just an orgy.....a very sizeable possibility

Loki was staying with them until after the wedding, partly because he didn’t want to be stuck in the palace anymore, and partly because traveling through the realms with such short intervals would be taxing. 

At least, that’s what Thor said. 

Sofia was pretty sure he just wanted another opportunity to fuck Rose, but she wouldn’t hold it against him. 

They enjoyed each other’s dry sense of humor at least, and the pups seemed to have gotten over their initial distaste for the omega. However, just like she wouldn’t hold Loki’s possible obsession with Rose against the omega, she couldn’t hold the pups’ distaste for him over them either. In all honesty, she wasn’t sure how she did it herself. The memory of the attack on New York City was still fresh in her mind after roughly eight years, and she knew her mates had been traumatized beyond belief. 

Had it not been for the way everyone seemed to brush it off, Clint and Bucky included, she was pretty sure she wouldn’t have. 

Now though, they had to meet with the wedding planner around noon, so she and her mates went back downstairs to the same office room they’d met with the lawyers in a few days ago.

The alpha female had helped Pepper and Phil plan their own wedding, and jumped into the details with a no nonsense attitude that Sofia appreciated. 

Clint, Thor, and Sam were unsurprisingly the most helpful when it came to decisions like colors, table settings, table cloths, and the more aesthetic aspects of the wedding. Tony already had a list of nearly a hundred people he needed to invite for Stark Industries related purposes, but other than that their guest list was still in shambles. 

Thor was the only other person that had a decisive invite list, whereas Clint, Sam, Bucky, and Bruce were still deciding which family members they were on good terms with, and Steve was wondering how to split his invitations up between friends and family friends. Natasha and Sofia on the other hand were unsure which friends were worth inviting, and overall the guest list was a mess that they agreed to table for another day. 

Thankfully, the meeting was over quickly. Everyone dispersed around the tower after it finished. Apparently, since he didn’t come down to the city often, Tony’d been swamped in meetings, but she didn’t really know what the others were up to just then. 

Sofia was just glad that she was able to sit calmly on the sofa, her side pressed into Bruce and Natasha’s head in her lap. 

Bruce had a bowl of grapes in his lap and was alternating between feeding Natasha and Sofia some. They’d been sitting there for a while, and Sofia noticed that even Natasha was about to doze off. 

“Don’t fall asleep,” Bruce cautioned, noticing the way her eyes seemed as if they were about to fall shut. She’d gotten an alright sleep the night before, but she still had the infuriating need to take an unreasonably long nap as soon as possible. 

“Just a little bit,” she grumbled trying to shove her face even further into him. 

“Once this is done you gotta start your homework,” he compromised, infuriatingly reasonable. She wanted to point out that she could just do it later that night, but then he’d give a huff of slightly annoyed air and remind her of Tony’s heavy  _ suggestion _ that she try to be in bed by midnight on school nights. 

The episode of  _ Criminal Minds _ finished soon, as did the grapes, and Natasha sat up from her lap to help Bruce nudge her in the direction of her workspace. 

She made sure to pointedly ignore Natasha and Bruce’s domestic bliss as she climbed the stairs. Her office was startlingly cold compared to the warmth of her mates, and she dragged a spare blanket from the couch to the desk so she could start working. 

There wasn’t much work, it was just that she didn’t have the drive to do any of it, so she was off to a glacial start. The random TikTok videos on her phone more interesting than her work, so she wasn’t insanely bored, just not motivated to do anything productive. 

At least her calculus teacher was faithful to his chosen homework source when he decided on worksheets, so she was able to easily find the answers to the weekend’s homework. 

She copied them down and highlighted a few random lines from her AP Government review book. None of her teachers would really check to see if she did the work well, just that it was there so she made sure to take advantage of that. 

Loki came into the office just as she was pulling open another book, this one thinner and a novel rather than an informational book. 

Neither of them said anything, and the other omega closed the door behind him before dropping himself onto her couch. 

It should have bothered her, someone she didn’t really know coming straight into her space without invitation, but her hindbrain recognized him as Thor’s family, and he’d never been more of an asshole to her than necessary. 

His politeness could have been a result of them not having truly been alone with each other, but she supposed she was about to find out soon. 

“Your captain is nearing his season, you will probably notice the signs in his scent within a fortnight,” Loki said conversationally, opening a book with a cover in a language that she couldn’t read. 

She closed her book in confusion, not having really started reading it anyway. Such a random statement wasn’t something she’d expect from someone she barely knew, and it wasn’t exactly a proper conversation starter. 

It wasn’t hard to believe that Loki could smell Steve’s rut, even though she couldn’t smell it. Omegas naturally had more sensitive noses than betas and alphas, and she knew that Thor’s sense of smell was far stronger than a human’s, so she could only imagine Loki’s sense of smell. In New York with so many people and different scents, he must have been in a sensory overload each time he left the tower’s carefully filtered air. 

In hindsight though, that sensory overload might have been better than the strong scent of alpha that permeated the pack floors in the tower. 

“Okay.”

“I merely thought that you should know beforehand. I doubt he knows himself.”

Sofia understood  _ that _ at least. They hadn’t discussed what would be done for ruts after the initial mating contract was signed, so the knowledge that Sofia would need to prepare for the conversation soon was useful. 

Loki nodded and went back to his book. Sofia shrugged off the conversation and kept skimming her own book. She was supposed to read and fill in a worksheet on five chapters of the book, but one of her classmates had sent the first two and half of the third, so she didn’t have much to do. 

She finished and sent the picture to her friend. Her eyes had grown heavy throughout the time when she was working, and she was glad to be done with her work. 

Not bothering to put anything away, she put her phone down and dragged the blanket over to where Loki was sitting. She probably wouldn’t fall asleep there, but she didn’t feel like hunting down anyone else, and Loki was right there. 

Because of her relationship with Thor, his scent was like a strange middle ground between the pups’ and Phil’s, a comforting, strange familiarity she guessed had something to do with being family. Mating bond aside, he smelled like some kind of fruit she couldn’t name, and a hint of cinnamon or nutmeg. 

Loki huffed and rearranged the blanket as well as the few pillows she kept on the circular couch to make some semblance of a proper nest. It’d been a while since Sofia had nested with another omega, and the nest combined with Loki’s welcoming scent had her hindbrain ready to purr in pleasure. 

Gently, he pushed Sofia backward so she toppled, and then followed her easily, one hand holding the book, and the other rubbing her shoulder semi awkwardly. 

Distantly, she heard Loki put his book down, and felt him put his other arm on the one she had on his chest. 

Her eyes closed, and she fell into a dark, dreamless sleep until a set of hands started tugging at her to pull her away from Loki. 

A low rumbling noise soothed her, and she felt the arms pull her into a bridal carry. She opened her eyes halfway to see that Thor was carrying Loki in a similar hold, and the hard, the arm under shoulders her was hard and metal like, which meant Bucky was carrying her.

“Nes’” she tried to tell Bucky when he took her into the room, heavy fingers clutching the fabric of his shirt so he wouldn’t put her down. 

Bucky made that same rumbling sound as before to keep her complacent, and changed direction to approach the door to the nest. The bedroom itself was large, and the bed took up a good portion of the far wall. On either side of the bed was a night stand, and on the wall to the left of the main door were two doors, one to the large walk in closet and the other to the bathroom. 

To the right of the main door was the door to the nest. 

Tony had said that originally there was nothing there, but that he’d had the penthouse completely redone. Now, there were Peter’s and Harley’s rooms where there used to be a movie and game room that Natasha claimed was a waste of space. Her little informal office space had originally been an abnormally large closet, and there were a couple of other office spaces aside from her own, one for Tony, and one for whoever else either needed to do paperwork at the time, or wanted a quiet space to themself. The nesting room on the other hand, was the floor’s newest addition, and was where the floor’s only guestroom had been.

Coincidentally, it was also their current destination. 

Both her hindbrain and forebrain preened at the effort they’d put into getting their space ready for her each time she acknowledged it, but now, she didn’t focus on it as Bucky took careful steps into the nesting room. 

The floor in the center of the room was like the opposite of a platform, a few feet lower than the space around it. There were soft fairy lights that were gentler on everyone’s eyes than the regular light, and blessedly, there were no windows. 

Bucky dropped to a knee and carefully rolled her out of his arms so she would cling to her overly large Mickey Mouse, still close enough to sleep that it didn’t take much effort for it to reclaim her. 

“Want me to bring you Bruce and Tasha doll? They’re sleeping in the bed,” he offered gently. 

Sofia nodded, rolling onto her back to peer up at him, the ends of her mouth perking up in a smile. 

Bucky gently pulled her glasses off of her now that he had a good view of her face, and left to get Bruce and Natasha. 

He came back in carrying Bruce. Their mate was such a deep sleeper that she hadn’t ever seen him wake up because of a change in his surroundings. Natasha came stumbling in behind him, eyes still closed. 

Sofia wasn’t sure if it was because Natasha was likely to lash out if moved while asleep, or if it was because the redhead hadn’t wanted to wait for Bucky to come back and get her. 

Natasha pulled Mickey out of her arms to pull Sofia into her chest, and Bucky set Bruce down behind her. 

“Pants,” she complained, annoyed at the restrictive jeans she was wearing. She sensed rather than saw Bucky’s eye roll, then felt hands gently unbutton her pants then pull them down with minimal cooperation on her part. 

She heard him throw the jeans off to the side somewhere and then felt him pull some miscellaneous blanket over the three of them. 

With a pleased purr, Sofia settled between two of her mates, Bucky’s parting shoulder rub the last thing she remembered. 

At some point, Clint joined, taking advantage of how Bruce was laying on his back and laying horizontally across the other alpha. It was nice, having such a large portion of the pack all cuddled up without some sort of agenda or obligations. 

~~~~

Bucky woke her up sometime later, lips gentle yet persistent against her own, and one of his fingers sliding in and out of her languidly. 

Her body tried to come back online, but she was still half asleep, and the feeling of Bucky’s languid motions lit a fire inside her just as quickly as it made her hindbrain send the message  _ yes, this is right just like- _

“Fuck,” she gasped into the kiss. She didn’t try to push him off or protest in any significant way. Technically, she’d agreed to things like this, it was in the conditions and expectations of the mating contract. Hell, she’d edited it a little herself, thinking she’d be woken up once or twice to fuck out a bad rut flare up. At the time, she hadn’t imagined waking up with fingers inside of her. Now that it was happening though, she was confident that she didn’t regret it. 

Natasha hushed her, bringing Sofia’s attention to the soft kisses that were being pressed to her chest. Part of her wanted to be annoyed at being woken up, but she couldn’t fathom being upset when her mates were being so gently demanding. 

“You’re soaking wet doll,” he groaned, then shifted his hand to try pressing a third finger into her, stretching her to a point she didn’t realize she could take just yet. 

She yelped regardless of how easy the stretch had been, hand uselessly batting at Natasha’s shoulder, “Wait- wait the get the stuffies out.” It was the only demand she could think to make, some part of her detesting the idea of having sex in front of the inanimate objects, though she distinctive’y remembered having done so in the throes of heat. 

Her thoughts were slowing the way that they did sometimes when she had attention like this from more than one of her mates, and she knew soon that she wouldn’t be able to make any other demands. 

Natasha’s hands, bigger than her own but still small and slender compared to Bucky’s, cupped the side of her breast to bring Sofia’s nipple closer to her mouth. It was a move that Sofia was familiar with, both something that she’d done and that she’d had done to her before, but nipple stimulation never failed to get her squirming. 

“Bruce did it, we knew you’d ask- you’re fucking adorable,” Bucky said, and she turned her head to the side, brain still trying to fully come online. 

To her left, where Bruce had been sleeping before, the alpha was now braced on all fours in a traditional breeding position. Thor’s large, lion like forme laid over his back, one arm holding his weight, the other hooked under Bruce’s hips, probably sliding his fingers into the brunette.

A reasonable person would have felt some type of way about everyone starting around her while she slept, but she wouldn’t put it past anyone to have started before any of the sleeping people were awake. 

From where she was laying, she couldn’t see anyone other than Bruce and Thor. She didn’t need to though, around her there was a pornographic orchestra of harsh breath and interspersed moans, and their combined scents in the nest were so strong that she knew they were all there. 

Unwittingly, she pitched in, especially as Natasha wrapped her lips around Sofia’s nipple for an infuriatingly controlled suck that was so  _ Natasha _ that it made Sofia want to slap her. It sent fire down her spine and straight to where Bucky’s fingers were in her core. 

Bucky slowed the smooth motion of his fingers, crooking them and changing the angle a bit so he hit the spot inside of her each time, making her jerk and gasp under him, squirming only controled by the firm grasp of both him and Natasha. 

His metal hand was firmly on her lower abdomen, Natasha’s on her chest between her breasts, and just as his attention to her g-spot brought her to the brink of orgasm, he pulled out. 

“Shit- Bucky-” she gasped, wanting the attention back, and her orgasm back in reach. 

Natasha readjusted the way she’d placed herself, leaning in so that she was closer to Sofia’s direct line of sight than Bucky was, and pulled away too. 

Unlike Bucky who hadn’t done anything yet, she grabbed Sofia by the back of the knee and pulled her leg up so that her knee was to her chest. 

Bucky leaned in to kiss Natasha languidly, and his newly freed hand grasped the free side of her waist, pressing down firmly. 

Sofia gasped and cursed loudly when she felt him press into her, hands scrabbling for purchase and finally settling on Natasha’s hair and Bucky’s shoulder. 

“Shh, shh Sofia,” Natasha crooned. It shocked her that the redhead spoke rather than Bucky since he was usually more talkative, but she didn’t get to focus on it, and the alpha male’s face looked pinched in concentration. 

He thrust the rest of the way into her with a half growl half moan, barely giving her time to adjust before pulling out again and thrusting back into her. The leg that Natasha wasn’t holding wrapped itself as tightly around Bucky as she could and he adjusted himself so he was kneeling upright rather than draping himself over her and Natasha. 

With Bucky out of reach, Natasha came closer to her, in almost the same position Bucky had been in, only with her knees to Sofia’s right rather than on either side of her. 

Natasha looked over her shoulder to Bucky, the two of them having a silent conversation that Sofia couldn’t see, then she felt Bucky’s hand replace the one Natasha was using to hold her leg. His other hand pulled her leg from around his waist to do the same, and Sofia found herself with both of her knees pressed to her chest, and Natasha moving up toward her. 

With Natasha out of the way, she could see the way that Sam and Steve kissed, and the way that Sam had to desperately clutch at Steve’s shoulders as Clint ground what she guessed was a forming knot into the other alpha. A second glance brought her eyes to Tony’s groin, namely the way that he was pistoning quickly into Steve. 

Sofia found herself wishing for her glasses so that she could get a better view of their faces, but Natasha cut off her view anyway. The redhead sat with her legs in a criss cross applesauce position that seemed innocently out of place for the occasion. 

Natasha pulled Sofia’s head into her lap with a soft, almost mocking noise, and Sofia opened her mouth without prompting, sharp whines forming in her throat. 

The tip of Natasha’s clit teased her tongue, and Sofia found herself arching into it in search of more. The redhead’s member was smaller than their male mates’ but still managed to hit the back of Sofia’s throat, and would make her gag if she wasn’t careful. 

Female alphas’ clits were retractible, only visible from the outside when hard, and waiting for it to fully extend was probably the reason that Natasha had waited so long to get involved, but Sofia didn’t care, just did her best to bob her head up and down her mate’s length. 

“Look at you pretty girl, choking on Tasha real nice and getting bred up by me,” if it were any other time, she’d look up at the alpha with wide, cautious eyes, but now the statement had even more heat surge in her, and she was moaning into Natasha. 

She didn’t want to be pregnant in the slightest, but right here, with Bucky’s length sliding in and out of her so smoothly, she wanted to write on his knot with the knowledge that she’d get pregnant from it. 

Her hands scrambled for purchase somewhere as Bucky started to thrust faster. The sound of her own garbled, muffled moans around Natasha’s clit couldn’t distract her from the feeling of Bucky’s forming knot pressing against her entrance. 

She wanted him in her, wanted to feel him force her walls to accommodate him even further, wanted to feel him orgasm inside her as she tasted Natasha on her tongue. 

A few rapid thrusts later had him pushing her thighs into her front a little harsher, hands still looking for purchase. His knot locked with a snarl, and as he ground it into her, Natasha readjusted herself so she was fucking Sofia’s face. She was filled with a sense of catharsis that the feeling of a knot always gave her. It was almost an orgasm, but not quite. 

Bucky let her legs fall back to the floor of the nest, relieving her thighs from the bit of strain, but it didn’t help the way that Sofia was gasping and choking around Natasha, not having been ready for such a sudden change of motion. 

“Come Sofia, help me,” Natasha said in an infuriatingly calm voice, guiding one of Sofia’s hands to her small, barely forming knot. 

It pulsated as she followed along with Natasha’s silent instructions, and she tried to take as much of it into her mouth as possible, but the alpha kept a hand over hers and the other in Sofia’s hair. She’d heard of omegas that could take an alpha’s knot in their mouth, but it usually ended in some sort of jaw damage. 

Sofia was glad for Natasha’s gentle guidance because she didn’t think she’d have cared about the jaw damage otherwise. 

Regardless, it was infuriating, and Sofia kept squirming at the way Bucky was grinding his knot into her, but Natasha just kept it up until the knot swelled to full size, a bit smaller than Natasha’s fist. The hot, swollen skin pressed against Sofia’s lips as the alpha released into her mouth, and she did her best to keep up. 

She couldn’t, and it spilled out of her mouth and onto her cheeks quickly, no matter how quickly she swallowed. 

Natasha’s cum was covering almost half of her face when the alpha pulled out, and the redhead leaned down to press a kiss to the omega’s swollen lips. 

“Good girl,” Natasha sighed into the kiss, stroking Sofia’s side like she was a particularly obedient pet. Natasha deepened the kiss right after, and Sofia didn’t put up a fight as she reciprocated, just let the alpha do what she wanted to her. 

Bucky pulled out with a sigh and a particularly harsh tightening of his grip on her hips, then joined Natasha in leaning over her. His hot breath wafted over her face, and she leaned into the potential point of contact unconsciously. 

He pressed a kiss to her cheek, heedless of how sticky she was, then Natasha pulled away so he could kiss her properly. 

“So good, omega, so good” he chimed in, then, “go ‘n help Thor out with Bruce, think he could use it right ‘bout now.” 

Sofia looked at him like he was stupid, still a little confused about what was going on, but he prodded her sides so that she would make her way over to where Thor had turned him and Bruce onto their sides, his knot probably about to lock. 

“Sofia,” Thor greeted softly, “Put your leg over Bruce’s side, I’d like for you to bring our omega to completion Bruce.” 

Bruce gasped, then opened his arm to welcome her, and Thor helped her pull her leg over their sides. The brunette reached between Sofia’s legs, Bucky’s spend making her feel even slicker. 

He slipped two fingers into her, thumb softly stroking her clit as his fingers searched gently for her spot. After Bucky hitting that spot so unerringly, she came quickly, gasping into Bruce’s neck, and digging her nails into his shoulder. 

“No no,” Thor chided when he saw Bruce about to pull his fingers out, “keep going, love. I want her screaming.” 

Bruce moaned at the words and Sofia mewled, the overstimulation getting to her quickly and driving her close to another orgasm. It was still pleasurable, but she had a feeling that she’d cross the divide between pleasurable overstimulation and painful overstimulation quickly. 

His skilled fingers got her to orgasm just as Thor’s knot locked. The blond alpha growled, biting into the back of Bruce’s neck in a hold that  _ had  _ to hurt, and grinding into the brunette again. 

Bruce had to stop to let out a short, sharp yelp that had his fingers stiffening inside her. Once her brain came back online, she reached down to stroke Bruce to completion. It was only fair, and she hadn’t realized that she’d been unconsciously neglecting him until then. 

The alpha’s orgasm took a minute or two to reach but hit him as her second one hit her. Thor’s arm came around to grip his knot to ensure the orgasm was pleasurable for Bruce as Sofia yelped loudly, overworked core not having truly been ready for another orgasm so quickly. 

“Good you two, so good,” Thor praised breathlessly, helping work Bruce down from his orgasm as Sofia came down from her own, then ordered Sofia gently, “get him hard again, I want him in you once I am done with him.” 

Bruce shook his head, but Thor kept on, squeezing Bruce’s quickly deflating knot, and shooting a look at Sofia over Bruce’s shoulder in a wordless order not to stop. 

She groaned, then obeyed as best as she could while trying to avoid the way Bruce looked at her in a silent search for mercy. In front of her, Thor did something so that he could pull out of Bruce before his knot had fully gone down. 

It wasn’t a burn she was familiar with, but it must have hurt Bruce since he flinched and whined into the pillow near his head. 

Thor made a noncommittal noise that was supposed to be comforting and pulled way fully. 

Bruce lifelessly flopped to his back, no longer held up by Thor’s bulk. 

“Go on, ride our mate Sofia. Don’t you think he’s beautiful?” Thor stroked a piece of Bruce’s hair from his forehead as he spoke, his other hand still working his own knot through orgasm. 

She looked up at Thor, harsh breaths falling from her lips, and he looked at her with a wild sense of gentleness that seemed strangely appropriate for the situation. 

Between his legs, though Sofia had done her best to be gentle with him, Bruce was still visibly stiff, and he’d given up attempts at not being overstimulated, stroking himself to maintain hardness. His eyes were wide and glassy, and from what she knew of sex between alphas, there was a chance his mind was in a similar haze to hers. 

Sofia nodded and tore her eyes from his face to stare at Bruce’s hard length wide eyed. Thor looked at her encouragingly, and her brain came back online enough to where she was able to make her way to Bruce and carefully swung a leg over his hip to straddle him. 

She loved bein gon top sometimes, but predictably her thighs started to burn after a bit, but Thor put his hands on her hips to help her. 

Hands still on her hips, Thor nuzzled his nose into the back of her neck, but didn’t scruff her. She felt him moving around behind her, and when he pulled her back to lean on his chest, she guessed he must’ve planted his knees on either side of Bruce’s splayed thighs.

“I’ll help you love, I’ll help,” he promised, and Sofia looked down at Bruce’s flushed cheeks, thoughts foggy from the strange haze that urged her to let them do as they wished, to stop fighting and just  _ be there _ with them. 

She let the haze take control and felt as Thor helped her ride Bruce. Under her, the alpha was writhing and gripping her thighs as tightly as he could. He was groaning and whining, and there was this high pitched noise that she distantly realized was her. 

Bruce’s knot locked after an indeterminable amount of time, and Thor didn’t push her to stop leaning back against him, just moved his hands from her hip to her inner thighs. 

He softly rubbed at the sensitive scent glands there as he made his way up, then focused his attention on her clit. 

“Good, good Sofia, good Bruce,” he rumbled, and she’d already orgasmed twice, but with Bruce’s flushed face under her and the feeling of his pulsing knot inside her where Bucky’s had been probably twenty minutes before, it didn’t take long before Thor had her screaming her way through a third orgasm. 

Thor waited for the trembling to fade, then gently pressed her shoulders so she flopped bonelessly down onto Bruce’s chest. 

She heard the click of what was probably a lube bottle, then felt Bruce’s legs move behind her before she heard a yelp. Thor gave a strained rumble, and she could tell he was growing out of breath, but she didn’t realize he’d edged his way into Bruce until she felt Thor brace himself with a hand on her back. 

Bruce wrapped his arms around her tightly, and she ground down into his knot as best as she could, strained whimper leaving her lips. 

“So good for me you two, so good,” Thor rasped, still using Bruce to seek his pleasure, and if the way Bruce kept twitching inside of her was an indication, he hit the spot inside Bruce unerringly. 

She moaned, enjoying the feeling of Bruce inside her and Thor over her. The haze inside of her had taken over, and she let herself lay and enjoy it. 

Sofia didn’t mind being woken up like this at all. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, I hope you enjoyed it. As always, let me know what you think about it, or if you've got any ideas or just something that you wanna see in the future. You can also come check out my mostly up and running [Tumblr](https://so--fucking--bored.tumblr.com) even if you just wanna chat.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 5/18
> 
> Hey, so before you read this chapter, if you haven't already read part one, I highly suggest going to the endnotes, there are also a few trigger warnings there that if I put them up here they'd spoil the entire chapter, but there are no triggers for sexual assault, so if that's what you're worried about you don't have to check the endnotes. 
> 
> Also, this isn't the pleasant orgy from last chapter, so I'm a little bit sorry for that.

Sofia stared blandly down at the pop quiz on the table in front of her. Despite cheating on all of the homework assignments the class had been given after the start of Thanksgiving break, she was familiar with the material. 

Realistically, she knew she’d be able to do it, and that if she wasn’t she’d be able to write down the questions, get the correct answers during the rest of the day, and make the corrections after the school day ended. She wouldn’t though, because compared to some of the homework assignments the quiz wasn’t actually hard. 

The quiz was just insanely unexpected, and even more unwelcome. 

A couple of rows in front of her, her friend Josephine dropped a black pen, then shortly after an eraser that she waited a little too long to pick up. 

Sofia’s eyes caught the movement, and she went over to the first question on the back of the test, then knocked three times on the desk. 

The answer she’d gotten was C, and Paulie agreed with three taps of his own pencil on his desk. 

In front of the class, their asshole teacher was none the wiser. 

As a group, the class cheated on most of the quiz questions. Sofia worked out her answers herself and used some of Paulie’s answers to check her own since his math skills were a little better, but still helped the others on their test. 

It was a fairly normal test or quiz day for the senior class, she was just glad that most of them wouldn’t actually need a majority of the things they were forced to learn and was anxiously awaiting a point in time when she wouldn’t have to deal with this class anymore. 

A little bit after she’d finished, she handed in her paper, pointedly not saying anything to her teacher. 

One by one, the large class of nearly fifty got up to hand in their papers, only a few of the students still not done. 

She felt bad for them. With the other two math teachers having quit the year before, and the school’s requirement for four math credits, people that should have been able to opt out of the college level course were stuck in it. To make matters worse, the principal put them all in one class so even if John, their asshole teacher, was willing to give them individual attention, he didn’t get the opportunity to. To make matters worse, the room itself was painfully cramped too, having originally been meant for thirty students at most.

Behind her, she heard the rustling of fabric and was pretty sure her classmate had taken a picture of the quiz. 

The boy to her side quietly put a sheet of looseleaf with the quiz questions and answers in his folder and doodled on another sheet with notes that he’d pass off as his only sheet of scrap paper. 

Sofia wondered if there were would be any turkey sandwiches down in the cafeteria by the time her lunch period came. 

She’d even settle for a tuna sandwich, she was just  _ hungry,  _ which shouldn’t even be happening, she’d eaten a breakfast sandwich earlier that morning. 

Ms. H, her AP Government teacher usually had protein bars in her bag, and she had that class next. 

The bell for the end of class rang, but no one got up, unwilling to test their teacher’s ire. Instead, the people that had already finished the quiz waited for everyone to get up and hand it in, bags already in hand, and desks cleared. 

“You all get five minutes after ninth period to finish. If you’re not here by three-ten you get no extra time,” he said, then halfheartedly shooed them all out of the classroom. 

Everyone rushed out of the class. A couple of people lingered in the halls to talk to friends, but she just shouldered past some freshmen and headed downstairs. 

There were only a few people in the classroom when she got there, so she dumped her bag at her usual desk and went over to the teacher’s desk. 

“Ms. H,” she said sweetly but was cut off by the beta female. Her teacher looked tired, but not in a bad way, more so the kind of tired that tended to set in when someone hadn’t been properly engaged or active in a while. 

“-go get me my bag, and don’t get crumbs everywhere.” 

Sofia smiled and got her teacher’s bag from where it was sitting on the window sill atop the radiator. 

Ms. H rolled her eyes good naturedly at her and dug through the large bag for a bit before she pulled out a protein bar. 

Sofia thanked the woman and went to sit at her desk. She paid attention to the more interesting bits of class and took a couple of notes that weren’t directly from the slides. 

The rest of the day was monotonous, and the lack of sandwiches in the cafeteria only soured her mood. She dozed a bit through some of her classes, but none of the teachers gave her more than a disapproving look of reprimand that hinted at the possibility of further action being taken. 

Her mood was only made worse when she realized that she had to go dance class. In her opinion, it was better than gym class since they didn’t really have to do anything, and the gym teachers tended to be harsh for no reason. 

She went downstairs to the first floor of the school, arms crossed over her chest in an attempt to ward off the slight chill of the back staircase. 

Her school was a small Catholic school, and despite what her friends told her about rising tuition rates, appeared extremely underfunded so the school gym also acted as the school’s auditorium. There were three entrances, two large double doors on one side, and a door on the other side of the large space that led to the back staircase. On the right of the large double doors was the stage, and thick navy blue curtains closed it off from the rest of the space. The wall on the side of the room with the double doors had mirrors all along the length of it. 

Across from the wall with the mirrors were three windows, and like all of the windows in the school, the window sill was large, almost like a bay window, and deep enough that someone could sit in it if they could reach. 

If she went onto the stage, then she could reach one of the large, seat like radiators that were built into the wall. Since it was already mid May, the heat wasn’t on very high, and she was able to sit atop it comfortably as she changed. 

While it was warm enough in the building that there was no need for the heat to be on, it wasn’t genuinely warm in the building, so goosebumps burst out along her flesh as she took off the kneehighs Sam made her wear. 

Usually, she’d go without, putting on leggings or forgoing socks and wouldn’t get into trouble, but she’d joked about not following uniform codes in passing, and ever since then he and Bucky had made sure she was in proper uniform each morning she left the tower. 

She replaced the kneehighs with another pair of socks, and got changed quickly, then pulled out her phone, being careful not to let the teacher see. 

_ Sofia: You should come pick me up I’m bored asf _

She didn’t expect an answer, so she just left her phone in the middle of her folded clothes and went to the center of the room where the others had gathered to wait for class to start. 

The teacher let them out early, and since there were only three classes left in the day, she zipped her sweater over her regular shirt, pulled on her skirt over her leggings, and left her kneehighs in her bag with her uniform shirt. 

Natasha had texted back with a sarcastically written message about the importance of school, and Sofia resigned herself to trudging throughout the rest of the day. 

Her only hope was that the last two classes of the day would go by quickly and that she wouldn’t get too hot to keep her sweater fully zipped. 

She went up the few flights of stairs that led her to her next class and set her bag down on the table. 

People were talking amongst each other, and for the most part, they didn’t look displeased, but, something about the atmosphere of the room made her stomach turn unpleasantly. She couldn’t tell precisely what it was, but it made her want to genuinely ask for someone to pick her up, knowing that a real request would be better received than her playful one. 

Sofia tried to brush it off and pay attention since she wasn’t doing too well in Spanish class. She copied her notes, answered when called on, but couldn’t bring herself to try participating other than when she had to. 

The others picked up on her uneasiness, or maybe under the seemingly positive facade they’d had they’d been just as uneasy as she had been, but it didn’t really matter. 

Her brain flashed to the worst of possibilities, and she mentally checked her pack bonds. Everyone was okay, both Peter and Bruce were feeling insanely flustered over something or other, but they were okay. 

She tried to tell herself that she was just overreacting, but her stomach felt like she’d swallowed a lead bowling ball, and her fingers twitched uncontrollably around her pen. 

Something was wrong, and all of her senses were telling her that she needed to  _ go _ even though she couldn’t. 

Then, over the loudspeaker,  _ “All students please assemble in the little gym for the Rose Ceremony, I repeat assemble for the  _ Rose _ Ceremony.” _

Sofia’s heart stopped, and the teacher stiffened, a calm sort of fear pouring off of her in waves. Around her, most of the others smelt similarly, and aside from the few betas that seemed fairly aloof, it felt like everyone fed off of each other’s fear. 

Like the flashing lights in her room at the orphanage had been weeks ago, the words that had been spoken over the loudspeaker acted as a signal for an active shooter in the building. 

There was a small, more rational part of her brain that wanted to cling to the belief that it could be a drill. 

The chance that it could be a drill was also a good possibility since recently with the rising mass shooting rates both schools and orphanages had started doing drills more frequently. Now, new regulations wanted an active shooter drill every six weeks or so. But, she couldn’t bring herself to cling to the hope that it was a drill. The last time she’d thought that it was a drill-

Someone pushed her in the direction of the locker room connected to the classroom, but it was as if the blood had fallen from her head and joined the lead bowling ball in her stomach. She felt so heavy and light at the same time, as if the floor had been pulled out from under her feet and she was falling into a dark, cold abyss. 

Everything happened too fast and too slowly, Chase’s body was under her, and she was pressing the orange sweater into his chest, but at the same time her teacher was locking the door and shutting the lights, kids were hiding between lockers. 

She wasn’t even sure that she was in school anymore. There was blood everywhere, and there’d never been blood all over the school like this, so it must’ve been her old room. 

No matter what, she knew that it smelled just like fear and death. The stench of it filled her lungs and clogged her nose so thoroughly that she couldn’t breathe around it. 

She wasn’t in school, she was at the orphanage, and Daniel, the unusually pudgy newborn was covered in blood. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t get it all off of his pale, porcelain skin, and the few spots where it still stained his skin faintly were inflamed from how hard she’d scrubbed his skin in an attempt to get it off of him. 

He was just a pup, and a pup shouldn’t have seen what he’d probably saw from his view in Jordan’s arms when she’d died. Sofia’s view of Jordan’s dead body had been bad enough, the image the pup must have seen would definitely have been far worse. 

The image of the bloody lump left her mind again, and she felt the way the orange sweater grew damp with Chase’s blood, felt the warmth of it on her fingers. 

But some part of her told her that her hands weren’t warm, that they were cold, with someone else’s grasping them tightly. Quietly, someone was whispering to her that it was just a drill, but she couldn’t believe that they’d make it out okay, couldn’t convince herself that she wasn’t in her room at the orphanage. 

“It’s just a drill Sofia,” the person with the cold hands whispered, and she forced herself to nod along with the words because she didn’t want to feel Chase’s harsh, labored last breaths under her hands. 

She felt like she was watching a poorly edited movie, both scenes playing out in front of her alternately. Natasha was pressing carefully confident fingers onto Chase’s pulse point, but Josephine was also looking at her like she was a ticking time bomb. 

The person with the cold hands pulled her head somewhere, and Sofia found herself flooded with the scent of warm caramel and omega. 

“It’s me, it’s Josephine,” her friend told her in a calm, only slightly panicky voice, and Sofia wrapped her arms as tightly around the other omega as she could. 

“Sorry, sorry,” she brushed off. 

Her chest was tight like when she’d overexerted herself to the point of an asthma attack. It was like her airways had been stuffed with cotton and invisible hands grasped her underarms and squeezed her chest inward. She had an emergency inhaler in her bag, but if she took that now, it might increase her heart rate to the point where it perpetuated her panic attack. 

Everyone except for a few people were pointedly looking away from her. Josephine let her go back to class, but the teacher stopped her, “I don’t think it’s best you go to class. Pack your things, I’ll give you a note for Ms. Gomez.” 

A response formed on the tip of her tongue, but she nodded shakily and got her stuff. 

She tried to convince herself she was fine, and she even stopped in the bathroom to quickly switch her leggings for her knee highs so she wouldn’t get yelled at, but she couldn’t leave her room at the orphanage. 

Faintly enough that she barely heard it, Daniel was still crying and Chase’s breathing was growing worse. She still smelt blood, fear, misery, and pain. 

Sofia managed to hold herself together as the principal gave her a dirty look, but when Sam’s hulking form walked into her principal’s office, she felt her resolve start to crumble. 

He said some words to her principal that she didn’t her, but she didn’t pay attention to them, just let him wrap his bulk around her so they could shuffle out of the building and onto the street. 

“If you want, Dr. Weaver’ll see you,” he offered, but she shook her head as soon as the words registered. She just wanted to go home and forget about the day, she needed something to take her mind off of it all. 

“Take me home,” she pleaded. Sam wrapped an arm around her in a half hug and led her to one of the less flashy cars that they owned. 

With the console between them, she couldn’t exactly curl up in his lap, but she kicked off her flats and curled her feet under her. It wasn’t quite two in the afternoon yet, so there wasn’t any traffic. 

The ease in which they weaved through traffic was also most likely partly due to Sam’s less than legal driving habits. 

Distantly, she knew that the reckless driving was out of character for him, but she didn’t sense any urgency from him, so she didn’t know why he was driving like that.

There weren’t any tears in her eyes, just a bone deep tiredness that she didn’t know how to shake, and from the way Sam calmly kept up the conversation, she guessed it showed on her face. 

Sam put a hand on her knee, and she put hers over it, doing her best to try to pay attention to what he was saying. 

She could only guess that they’d sent Sam because of his counseling experience, and his experience with PTSD, but she was also pretty sure that she didn’t technically have PTSD. She’d ask Dr. Weaver during their appointment tomorrow, but in all honesty, she was pretty sure she’d wind up trapped in some roundabout interrogation where she was repeatedly asked if she thought she had PTSD. 

“It’s okay to cry sweet pea,” Sam said suddenly. 

Sofia shook her head quickly, hands flying to her cheeks to see if she’d been crying. She was pretty confident that she hadn’t been crying, but she also couldn’t be sure. 

The skin was tight from the dried tears, but it wasn’t wet or hot with the telltale feeling of freshly shed tears so she couldn’t tell for sure why he’d said that. Unease settled heavily into her stomach. 

She couldn’t tell if she was somehow supposed to have been crying, or he’d expected her to cry and was annoyed that she didn’t. Sofia couldn’t fathom if she’d somehow stepped the wrong way, and her chest constricted like it used to when she was younger and unaccustomed to the scent of disappointed alpha in her nose. 

Only, Sam’s scent didn’t sharpen and sour with disappointment, it deepened with something odd that she couldn’t pinpoint. It was almost like when he tried to gently coax her into eating on days when she put up a genuine argument against it, or when someone’s eyes got a blank far away look. 

He wasn’t trying to get her to eat, so she guessed that her eyes had gotten that strange look like Steve’s when he got too cold, or Tony’s sometimes did when he was in the shower and the water hit him in the face the wrong way. 

“N-no I’m okay,” she stumbled, throat tight around the strained words. 

He gave her an appreciative look and squeezed her knee. She didn’t meet his gaze and did her best not to focus on the mating bonds or how it seemed as if something different was pouring toward her from each one. The myriad of feelings were hard to decipher, and Sam’s scent still had that scent of concern in it that she couldn’t escape in the small car. 

“Just sleepy,” she dismissed. 

The alpha made a disapproving noise, and something inside of her keened in sadness. She didn’t mean to disappoint her alpha, and the sound of disapproval had something inside of her splintering. 

“I’m okay,” her voice cracked, and the words were shaky, heavy with unshed tears. She didn’t believe herself, and she knew Sam definitely didn’t believe her. The unease in her stomach was intensifying the longer Sam’s scent had that tinge of concern, and she didn’t know how to get rid of it. 

She took a deep breath, bit her tongue, and said without the telltale crack in her voice, “I-”

Sam cut her off by threading his hand in her hair, near the base of her neck and pulling her down. Under her, her legs unfolded effortlessly as she followed the silent order, and she leaned over the console to rest her head on his thigh. 

He was wearing some fabric that felt like a cross between sweats and slacks, not as giving under her cheek as the former, but definitely not as harsh as the latter. Under her cheek, it felt soothing, like a warm blanket that smelled like pack. The alpha made a soft noise, not exactly approval, but not the disapproving sound he’d made earlier, and shifted her a bit so that he could still comfortably grasp her with that gently unyielding grip in his hair. 

Under her hip, the seatbelt buckle was digging into her painfully, but when she shifted away a bit the pressure lessened to a point where she was able to ignore it. 

Here, Sam’s scent the strongest, and if she allowed herself to sink into it, the sharp tang of concern included, she could ignore everything else. He smelled like some kind of pastry she couldn’t name, warm dough, sugar, and something else she couldn’t’ put her finger on. The fabric of his pant leg was soft and warm from his body heat, but not damp like the yellow sweater, and it was black. 

If Bucky had been there, he probably would have said something about the way she slipped her thumb into her mouth, but he wasn’t, and Sam didn’t say anything. 

There was a burning in her eyes that intensified each time she blinked, and her cheeks felt hot and wet. 

She didn’t mention that she was crying, and neither did Sam. The concern in his scent eased a little bit though, and it helped settle some of the unease in her stomach.

Everything was too little and too much at once. It wasn’t like the events from earlier touched her. She felt numb to them now, but they’d drained her in a way that was so thorough she felt like a shell of a person. 

He drove a little too fast, and she nearly fell onto the floor a few times, but they made it to the tower safely, his right hand either in her hair the entire, or stroking her temple. She’d always been able to appreciate some sort of pattern, and Sam set an easy one to follow for her. She didn’t have to think, just lay there, enveloped by his scent and ignoring the world around them. 

It wasn’t the same kind of peacefulness that it was when they were at the den, or in the nest, that kind of peace was soothing like a warm bath. This kind of peace was more like a cool drink on a hot day. It was tentative, not something that’d stay soothing for long and would grow ineffective sooner rather than later. 

Someone, Thor based on the scent that permeated the air when she felt gently large hands pull out of the car, helped her into the elevator. Sofia couldn’t be sure though, it was like her eyes had stopped processing whatever was in front of her. She could see, but it was like her brain was working so slowly she couldn’t comprehend. 

When they got upstairs, he turned her outward so she was facing Tony. The brunette alpha patted his knee and tugged sharply on the bond to call her over silently. 

It took a second for it to register, but when it did she walked over, stumbling a bit, arms wrapped around herself defensively and tears still sliding hotly down her cheeks. 

Her hair was probably still a mess from the way Sam had been holding her, but Tony didn’t seem to care, just beckoned her with a soft, “Come omega,” that didn’t leave much room for argument. 

Instinct drove her closer to him, triggered by his tone and accompanied by the primal need to both be close to someone that had become such an integral source of comfort in her life and the alpha of her pack. 

Sofia went over to stand in front of the alpha, only now noticing that there was a gold pillow with red trimmings between his feet. The pillow wasn’t anything new, she’d knelt for each of them once or twice already, but it wasn’t usually something that felt so weighted. Now, it felt like kneeling for Tony would either make or break her psyche. 

Sofia felt so  _ hollow _ so numb, and she didn’t know how to properly articulate or explain the feeling, only that she hoped Tony would be able to make it better for her. 

She knelt as gracefully as she could on the pillow, heels tucked neatly under her ass, palms resting on her knees. 

Tony threaded a hand in her hair, a grip similar to the one Sam’d had on her minutes ago, and pulled her close enough that her face was basically in his groin. 

He didn’t smell aroused, so she wasn’t surprised when he just pushed her to rest her cheek on his inner thigh. Unlike Sam’s pants, these were undeniably dress pants, the firm fabric was not rough under her skin, but not soft either. He’d had a meeting earlier if she recalled correctly, but she wasn’t sure what about. 

She didn’t pay it any mind. He took his hand from her hair, and lightly pressed his nails into her scruff. 

Part of her yearned for his teeth in place of the fingers, but she knew that wouldn’t happen.

If he properly scruffed her now, he would most likely send her into an extremely early heat and throw himself and the others into an untimely rut as well. At least, that was since they were already mated, had they not been mated regardless of where they were in their respective cycles, scruffing her with his teeth could drive her feral.

So, with her inconsiderate biology in mind, he didn’t scruff her, just held her close with one hand and cupped her cheek with the other. 

Tears were still sluggishly falling from her eyes and onto his thigh, and she broke position to put her left hand on his thigh, thumb teasingly brushing her lip. 

Her other hand was still fiddling with the hem of her skirt, unsure what to do with the conflicting urge to submit to Tony and the tumultuous state of her emotions. 

Above her, Tony didn’t give her much of an option, just held her gently, scent pushing out signals that she was safe, that her alpha was with her. The numbness and hollowness was still present inside of her, like a gaping hole that was waiting for her to slip up so that it could tear her to pieces more than the day already had. 

Being underneath the alpha helped her gain her footing, and the hole didn’t shrink, but the significance of it in Sofia’s mind diminished slowly. 

She wasn’t sure that she slept, but she knew that time passed oddly and that she was on a better mental footing when Tony jostled her again. 

“Hey,” he mumbled to her, and she looked up at him with wide, tired eyes. Her mouth tasted oddly the strange taste it got whenever she’d gotten a deep sleep, and she licked her lips in an attempt to get rid of it. She still felt numb. But not as hollow as she’d felt on the way home with Sam. 

“You ready to eat?” Tony asked, probably rhetorically. Sofia nodded, and he smiled cheekily, then tapped two fingers against her cheek in a silent suggestion to get up. 

She got up, then rubbed her hands over her eyes in an attempt to rid them of whatever sleep was left in them, “I gotta pee,” she mumbled. Part of her wanted to be able to go off to the bathroom without permission, but he’d gotten her settled into a similar haze to the one that’d taken over her during sex the day before. 

That particular haze had to do with omegas being consensually put under the control of their alpha. A similar sensation she knew her mates felt with each other could happen between non omegas and omegas with non alpha partners, but she’d only experienced it with her mates. 

When it didn’t happen between an alpha and omega it was called subspace, but Sofia hadn’t found a word to describe the haze that happened to omegas with their alphas. 

Sofia used the bathroom that they had on the first floor, and rinsed the taste of sleep from her mouth with cold water since there were no dental products in that bathroom. She had to keep the water cool as she washed her hands, not wanting to risk the feeling of her hands being warm again. 

The dining room smelled like fried, greasy food when she entered. Peter was with his aunt, and Harley had left for Queens so he could meet Peter at his school and they could spend time together afterward. She wasn’t sure, but the pup would most likely either spend the night in Queens or request a ride back from Happy. 

Because of that, there were three empty seats at the table, but they were all toward one end except for one so no one went without sitting next to someone. 

She sat in the empty chair that was between Clint and Thor. Whoever had been in charge of dinner that day had most likely forfeited their responsibility since the table was littered with aluminum take out containers and a few boxes of pizza stacked on top of each other. 

Some of the containers held chicken wings, some of them held mozzarella sticks, and there were a couple that looked like they had garlic bread. 

Thor was the closest to the pizza boxes, and quickly served two slices on each plate as requests came in from everyone else. 

Clint had two dubious looking slices of Hawaiian pizza on his plate, and Natasha had one as well, accompanied by a slice of pepperoni and ham. Everyone had also grabbed some of whatever else was on the table. Sofia’s own plate was filled with a slice of chicken and bacon, and a slice of white pizza without sauce. 

She was numb, and it was a horrible, all encompassing feeling that she didn’t think she’d be able to shake for a while, but Sofia didn’t feel hollow anymore, so she guessed it was a good start. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really hope you enjoyed, don't be afraid to let me know what you think or if you've got any ideas or something you wanna see in the future. 
> 
> Now, in the beginning notes, I mentioned that if you haven't read part one, there's some stuff you should know. In chapter 19 of part one, there was a mass shooting at the orphanage that Sofia was living in. Her Den Alpha, who was basically her guardian, was shot and killed, and he died in Sofia's arms as she tried to save him. During this, she was also trying to hide a newborn in her room from the shooter, and at some point in part one it's also revealed that her friend and one of the younger children died there as well. 
> 
> TRIGGER WARNING: mentions of a mass shooting, PTSD flashbacks, undiagnosed PTSD, main character also has a panic attack


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 5/20/2020
> 
> Hey so I know in the tags it says not Iron Man 3 compliant, but I want to give a quick rundown of what I mean by that before I start. I'm applying cannon for most of the movie, but in my au Pepper never got extremis and I've moved the timeline of the movie from 2013 to 2016 so that Harley is still around the same age in my au for those events as he was in cannon. That being said, I did age him down to 15 or so. 
> 
> Also, I want to put a disclaimer that I have absolutely no clue how to hack the government, so I'm just writing this based on what seems like what you're supposed to do.

“Hey,” she greeted Harley as she threw herself down onto the sofa. 

They’d just finished eating dinner, so the food Natasha had prepared was sitting comfortably in her stomach. 

She’d had a session with her therapist the day before, but the numb feeling hadn’t really left even two days after the shooting drill, so she was doing her best to stay calm and keep herself occupied.

“You should do my homework,” Harley proposed, not looking away from the game of Mario Kart he had up on the screen. 

Sofia gave him a look that she knew he felt the weight of even if he didn't see, then went back to scrolling through TikTok. She was trying to brainstorm for the still only half planned wedding, but couldn’t find much she liked. 

“Please? Tony says I’m not good enough at computer shit and wants me to start on that.”

“Harley you built the newest Stark laptop and hacked Peter’s school so that the kid that bullied him failed gym class. Twice.” Though Sofia was sure her gentle threat to his elder brother had been the main reason the Thompson kid had stopped bullying Peter so blatantly, she thought that Harley’s actions were adorable. 

The pup grumbled unintelligibly, then paused his game right before he drove himself off Rainbow Road. 

“I know, but he wants me to actually hack into the feds and said it’s gonna be like half my grade,” the pup whined. Sofia barely resisted the eye roll she felt coming up. Tony Stark was the only person she could see forcing a child to hack through government firewalls for a grade. 

“I’ve gotten into the FBI before, but their stuff changes every thirty days, and I think he’ll see it’s me if he tries to retrace your steps,” Sofia said, and when the pup turned the full force of his pout onto her, added on, “but I’ll walk you through it.” 

Harley grinned like the cat that got the canary, and rushed off to his bedroom, Sofia a few less enthusiastic steps behind. 

He had a desk of the same make and model as hers in his room, pushed into the far corner of it. Compared to some of the other rooms she’d seen in her life, it wasn’t entirely messy, but there were a few items of scattered clothing and miscellaneous things scattered around the space that gave it a lived in feeling. 

Sofia was just glad that she couldn’t see the fabled stiff teenage boy cum sock everyone joked about. 

On the desk, open to what looked like a page of code that was running itself was the boy’s laptop. Sofia took her seat at the chair in front of his desk without prompting and started to carefully scroll through what looked like his attempt at breaking into the CIA’s firewall. 

“Harley why are you trying to break into the CIA?” she asked, giving the pup a confused look. 

“What?” He asked defensively, voice cracking a bit as he spoke. 

“The FBI is way less likely to torture you, please stop trying to get into the CIA.” She’d heard horror stories of hackers that had gotten caught within CIA firewalls, and the tales she’d heard surrounding Anonymous’ fate still gave her chills. 

“Alright, alright,” he dismissed, though he looked as if he didn’t believe her. 

He hastily stopped his attempts at breaking through the firewall, then stared blankly at his computer screen for a minute, unsure where to start. 

Sofia sighed, accepting that she would most likely be doing all of the work, if not a majority of it. It had been a while since she’d done much more than make her way into websites for homework answers, so she was open to the challenge, just not eager for it. 

She opened Tor and started typing in a series of letters that took her to a back door someone had created a few months back. It wasn’t her preferred method, but it was the easiest one. 

“So, you go here, then you gotta type these codes in,” she showed the pup what she’d put in, “now you gotta do the rest.” 

The pup took the offered seat, eyes roving over the lines of code she’d put on the screen in confusion. 

“You’re at a log in page, you can’t just get into these things from a back door, and making your own door takes a long ass time and is more easy to notice,” she explained, then tacked on, “you get into this you’ll be at the bottom of the food chain. Work your way up and print out the uncut Russian president’s file.”

“That doesn’t sound hard at all,” he huffed sarcastically, and she shrugged. 

“You can always get another file or just get him in here to see ‘em,” she offered, not knowing what else to say andwondering whether she should leave or not. 

Something told her not to leave though, so she stood around, and helped the pup every now and then. He didn’t end up needing her help for much though, and got himself into a comfortable work pattern quickly, only looking up from lines of code every now and then. 

“You uh- can you stay?” 

She nodded, feeling a little guilty that she hadn’t really spoken to the pup. Even while she was still at the orphanage, Peter used to call her once a week or so, but Harley hadn’t made an attempt at reaching out and she hadn’t wanted him to feel forced to communicate with her.

It was more than a little awkward, doubly so because of the vibrant, thrumming imprint bond that tied them together. On her end, it had her instincts roaring with the need to nurture and protect the pup, and on his end was probably a confusing battle between the pubescent need to protect any omega that lived with him and the childlike need to be cared for by a maternal figure. 

He took his time for once, double checking the codes as he inserted them and ensuring he wasn’t about to step wrongly and get caught. The process took around an hour or so. 

Sofia tried to keep up the conversation so that it wasn’t  _ too _ awkward, but Harley’s answers were half distracted. 

“I’m in,” he announced, the page that real FBI agents saw when they signed in on his screen. 

“Great, now you’re gonna try to make your way to a file, then you’re gonna change what you first put in a little, but it’ll look kinda like this,” she scribbled a little of it down. He’d be able to get the rest of the way himself, she just wanted to give him a head start. 

“Thanks, Sofia,” he said quietly, a tinge of pink on his cheeks, she didn’t understand why he was suddenly embarrassed, “did uh- did Tony ever tell you why I came up here?” He asked at last. 

Sofia shook her head. Sure, she’d wondered as to why he’d moved in with the pack, especially at such a young age, but the information hadn’t been offered up to her, and she hadn’t gone around pressuring anyone into giving it to her. 

That in mind, she did her best to look only blandly interested, rather than eagerly curious and obnoxiously nosey. 

“Do you remember,” he started, ill disguised anxiousness evident in the undertone of his words, “when a few years back there was that whole big thing where Tony’s house in Malibu got blown up?”

He didn’t wait for Sofia to admit that she hadn’t really been interested in it at the time. It had happened around four years ago, and she had been just starting high school and getting involved with things she shouldn’t have. 

“Well he wound up holing ‘imself up in my garage and after the shit storm passed didn’t hear from him much,” he paused then, and she put a hand on his shoulder, then pretended not to notice how he leaned into it eagerly, “then shit hit the fan at my house. My dad had left around oh-nine or so and it was just me and my mom and my sister. She- my momma tried,” he tried to defend, then shook his head like there was a stubborn bit of water in his ears, “but uh one of the teachers from my school called one day ‘cause she saw me and my sister walking home alone. Kid services came, there were a couple ‘a bruises on Abby and they said I was too skinny.”

His voice cracked then, and Sofia squeezed his shoulder tighter but didn’t interrupt, then wrapped an arm around him, careful to make it more sincere than invasive. The effort seemed to be appreciated as he continued, a little out of breath. 

“She kinda stopped trying after that, got real sad and started drinking more. The kid services came back, and my aunt only wanted to take my sister Abby, said she couldn’t afford two mouths to feed and it was me or her. Tony musta heard somehow, came back down south and helped me get emancipated, then took me back up here. My momma got mad, tried to hit me when she saw I was leaving with him. Kid services people saw and we don’t think she’s ever gonna get Abby back.” 

That wasn’t all there was to the story, there must have been something worse that had gone on if child services had gone as far as to remove both him and his sister after only a few visits. She didn’t ask though. Either he wouldn’t tell her that part of the story, or he would tell her when she was ready, but she knew it wasn’t her place to ask. 

Harley pushed the side of his cheek into her shirt at that, and she pushed a piece of fallen hair from his face. The pup didn’t cry, just soaked up the attention that she offered to him, scent sour and tinged with an old sadness that wouldn’t even truly heal with time.

Sofia let him, not completely sure of what to do to help him or if he actually wanted some form of whatever possibly soothing ramble she could come up with if she even tried. A few minutes passed like that, of her imaging CPS workers storming into his home and an underweight Harley scared and confused about their presence. 

Inevitably, he pulled away.

Scent wise, his mood was still the same and it had every fiber of her wishing that she could just wrap him up tightly and put him away somewhere that he would be safe. 

Sofia didn’t say anything, and he went back to the file in front of him, slowly selecting words and typing in lines of code in a half hearted attempt to dismiss the thick emotion in the air. 

It seemed like he’d gotten the hang of it and didn’t need her help anymore, but she stood by him anyway. 

Based on their past encounters alone, Harley wasn’t very clingy. He enjoyed having someone else with him so that he wasn’t alone, but he wasn’t outright dependent on a person being there in order to be comfortable.

Now though, he seemed a little more clingy than she knew him to be. It was probably due to the sensitive nature of their conversation, but it still unsettled her and made her worry. 

She was rather annoyed at herself. She should have known that his mother must have either been dead, rejected him, or been abusive to him in some form, or else the imprint bond would have never happened. 

Had the imprint bond formed with both of his biological parents in his life, there would have at least been emotional abuse going on in the home. 

In Peter’s case, she knew from a few bad jokes that his parents were dead, but Harley hadn’t even joked about his previous home life before, so she’d had no clue what to really expect. 

“Think I got it,” he announced, a hint of pride in his voice.

Like she’d told him, somewhat jokingly, there was an unredacted file open on the computer screen. 

“Alright,” she checked the time on her phone, it was pushing ten at night, “Tony wasn’t at dinner and someone was supposed to go down to make sure he didn’t die, lemme see if anyone went. If no one went I’ll get him some food and you can come down with me and we’ll just show him the laptop.”

For a brief second, she thought he’d shake her off and print out screenshots of the screen himself, but he just shrugged nonchalantly. She resisted the eye roll she felt coming on and texted the group chat quickly. 

Natasha was, predictably the first one to reply, saying that no one had been down to bring the brunette dinner since he was due back soon anyway. The message was followed up from three separate ones from Sam, Bucky, and Bruce saying that he probably wouldn’t be up in time. Bruce’s also included the fact that he might not eat since Tony had claimed to have eaten a late lunch. 

Sofia stared down at her phone, and the rapidly typed out conversation that kept getting longer and longer and wondered if she should have just gotten Tony’s pre plated serving without mentioning it to anyone. 

Bruce, Bucky, and Sam weren’t even arguing, which made it funnier. They were just firing back and forth on whether or not it was worth going downstairs to give Tony a plate he might not eat. 

Just as quickly as the discussion had started, the three alphas came to the general consensus that it wouldn’t hurt anyone if Sofia brought Tony’s plate to the lab. 

“Just don’t close the laptop,” she warned Harley as he carefully picked it up. 

“I’m not that dumb,” he defended, and Sofia didn’t try to say anything in response. Had someone tried to warn her not to close her laptop she’d probably have said something worse to them. 

Tony’s dinner was sitting in the oven, the glass tupperware warm to the touch but not hot, and covered in foil so she didn’t bother to find the matching top. 

“I should put on shoes.”

Her flats were still by the door from earlier, and she’d make a comical picture in the shorts she’d worn under her uniform skirt, her school sweatshirt, and a pair of ballerina flats. 

“Wait,” she said to herself once she realized what she was wearing, and the fact that she had no clue where she’d thrown her skirt even if she wanted to wear it again. Normally, she wouldn’t mind going down to his lab wearing anything, but he was in the public Stark Industries labs working with some interns from NYU. 

“Let me-” Thor’s sweater was hung on the coat rack near the door, and she switched her sweater for his. It fell down below her knees and reminded her of the children she would see on television that tried to wear their parents’ clothing. 

For a quick trip down to the labs though, it would work well enough. 

“You look ridiculous.”

“I look like a six year old, J take us to whatever lab Tony’s holed up in.”

JARVIS didn’t respond, but the elevator started moving downward, away from the penthouse and in the direction of the public floors. 

Harley was the first of the two out of the elevator. She didn’t recognize the security guard that stood in front of the large glass doors separating them from the bright, well lit lab, but Harley seemed to. 

The beta male nodded in greeting at the pup and had them both press their right hands against something to be scanned. Aside from that brief encounter, getting into the lab was an easy affair. 

The second security guard recognized Harley too, and the female alpha pointed them to where Tony was bent over something, eager yet tired looking college students crowded around him. 

Internally, Sofia suppressed a laugh. Tony must have either been too absorbed in his work to notice the crowding, or too fed up with telling them something to allow the blatant violation of his personal space. 

“You sure you’re supposed to be here kid?” One of the only people not crowding Tony asked. Sofia looked up at the male. He was a fairly short alpha, around Bruce’s height, but he had a holier than though attitude, and an ego large enough that she guessed it was to compensate from his obvious vertical disadvantage.

He looked like his name was Preston. 

To her left, Harley gave the elder alpha a bland look, and Sofia shot a sharp look at Tony in hopes that the brunette would somehow get the hint and look up, saving her and Harley from the interaction. 

“Just trying to talk to the big guy,” she hoped that her tone made up for the annoyance brewing inside of her, and by the way possibly Preston smiled at her, she assumed it worked. 

“He isn’t giving autographs right now, and I thought the omega interns met on a different day,” he paused, a glint in his eye that made Sofia want to growl in a nonverbal sign to fuck off, “Are you lost sweetie?” 

“Don’t talk to her like that,” Harley shot back, a surprisingly deep growl in his own chest.

Sofia grabbed his arm tightly, wanting him to feel the pressure of her grip, and tugged him around the annoying intern, in the direction of Tony. 

Probably Preston smelled like a cat toying with their food before closing in on it but didn’t move to stop either Sofia or Harley. He made sure not to stray far though, abandoning his work to follow them as they moved to stand on the side of the table opposite where Tony was sitting. 

She mouthed a  _ sorry _ to one of the interns that looked up at her, and the intern looked wearily between Sofia, Harley, and probably Preston. 

Then, she reached forward to tap a nail sharply against the metal of the table. She’d have outright grabbed him, but she didn’t want to risk him lashing out and hitting one of the interns. 

He didn’t look up, and she risked tapping her nail against the side of what he was working on. The starkness of her nail polish against the metal must have been enough, and he looked up from his work, squinted his eyes like he didn’t recognize her, then smiled. 

“Sofie, baby,” he uncaringly pushed his interns away to lean over the table that separated them and pull her in by the neck of her sweater. 

Sofia had to rise to her toes and brace a hand on the table to keep steady, but the kiss he planted on her was a short, sweet peck. 

“Oh uh Mr. Stark I-”

“You signed an NDA Chad,” Tony told the alpha that had been bothering her and Harley. 

“And  _ you _ need to eat,” she told the brunette instead of addressing the sulking alpha behind her. 

Tony took the tupperware from her, then scratched the back of his neck with a screwdriver, “Knew I forgot something.” 

Around him, the students seemed to inch backward, like they were trying to escape the situation without leaving Tony’s vicinity. 

“Finished the project,” Harley interrupted. 

Tony took the proffered laptop, then scrolled through the page they’d left open. He typed in a few things himself that Sofia couldn’t see, then gave Harley a look of appreciation, “Good job kid.” 

He was preening internally, but neither Tony nor Sofia mentioned it, and the pup shrugged off the praise. 

“Oh,” he mumbled, holding the tupperware, “it’s still warm.”

“It isn’t hot,” she corrected, knowing that it probably wouldn’t taste great at its current temperature. 

“It isn’t cold,” he countered, looking up at her with bright brown eyes, enjoying the harmless banter. She rolled her eyes at Tony good naturedly, knowing that Tony had probably eaten far worse than Natasha’s unheated beef stroganoff. Even if he hadn’t, it was far better than whatever hamburger helper she’d ever eaten, so she knew he’d enjoy it. 

“Goodnight Tony,” she used a sing song voice as she spoke, and Tony smiled cheekily at her, then his eyes widened comically when she turned and heard him say hastily, “Shit is it three AM again?”

One of the interns must have placated him since he didn’t rush out behind her and Harley, but she felt his eyes follow her while she bid the security guard a good night. 

The elevator ride up was short, and Harley didn’t hug her when they went their separate ways at the top of the stairs, but he gave her a small sheepish smile and shrugged his shoulder. She smiled softly at his retreating form and headed toward her office. 

She didn’t have much homework left, but there were a few questions she needed to answer. Sofia finished the homework quickly, not really caring what she put down, and went to shower. 

Bruce was, predictably, already in bed, though he wasn’t sleeping, rather reading a book. 

“Hi,” he greeted, adjusting his glasses from where they were sliding down his nose. 

She went over to the edge of the bed where he was laying to press a kiss against his cheek, “Hey Brucie.” 

Bruce let out a little chuff that had her lips tilting upwards in a smile, “Tony gonna eat?” 

“Hope so, gave him the food.”

Bruce gave her a considerate  _ hmm,  _ “Go shower, it’s already almost twelve.” 

Sofia tried not to shoot him a dirty look but didn’t really succeed. She knew that if it were up to him he probably wouldn’t enforce some of the rules on her, but he also wouldn’t step on anyone else’s toes and aid her in ignoring said rules. 

She went to the bathroom and took a long, hot shower, letting the tension from the day go down the drain. 

The closet attached to the bedroom was unreasonably large, even for one that nine people shared, and just to the left of where Sofia’s clothes were was a second drawer that was filled with what she liked to consider gently worn clothing. 

All of the clothing there was given to her by her alphas after being worn for and properly scented for a few hours, and was offered to her as potential nesting material, but she also occasionally used some of the clothes to wear when she didn’t feel like wearing any of her own. 

Tonight seemed to be one of those occasions, and she pulled out a dark blue, long sleeve sweater with the SHIELD emblem embroidered on it. 

Like all of the clothing that was put into that particular set of drawers, it smelled distinctly like alpha and mate, but as only some of the other articles did, the scents were so deeply intertwined in the fabric that she couldn’t be sure who it’d originally belonged to or who’d worn it last. 

It wasn’t quite as long as the one she’d borrowed from Thor earlier, but it still fell to a little past her knees and was scratchy in the way that most clothing for alphas was. 

The television in the room was usually hidden behind a seemingly nonexistent wall panel, but now it was quietly playing a cop show that Bruce ignored. 

On the bed, Bruce was still reading his book so she didn’t pay him much mind as left the closet to join him. 

Rose had sent her a few wedding related TikToks that she started watching. For the most part, the ideas seemed nice, but not for her so she ignored them. 

“I should wear a crop top tomorrow,” Sofia turned to look at the door, not having even heard it open. Natasha was standing in the doorway of the closet, holding up two different shirts and looking at each one contemplatively. 

“Which one?” 

“I don’t want to wear any of the ones I have, I might buy one.” 

“Don’t,” she dismissed, sitting up fully, “take one of my stretchy shirts or one of the tanktops I have.” Natasha was taller than her by around half a foot, but the alpha also had a smaller chest than her and wasn’t much wider shoulder wise. 

The redhead nodded at her and disappeared back into the closet. 

She came back after Sofia heard a few things fall, wearing one of Sofia’s black camisoles. It looked was one of the ones that on the omega toed the line between short and not long, and on Natasha’s taller form it reached a little below her bra. 

It was cute but, “Not that one, take the one I have in red.” 

“But I like black.” 

“You always wear black.”

Natasha looked at Bruce for assistance, and it took a minute of Sofia poking him sharply in the side for the brunette to look up and say, “I like it.” 

“See-”

“But she always wears black.”

Both females looked at Bruce then, and the alpha looked torn between risking disagreeing with the omega next to him and his other mate across from them. 

Sam walked in just as Bruce opened his mouth, probably to find an excuse to leave the room even though it was nearing the time when his body always caved in to the demands of sleep, “Sam,” Natasha and Sofia said at the same time. 

The male looked at Bruce for guidance first, then looked at Sofia, and slowly to Natasha. 

“Tell me this looks good.” 

“It looks good.” 

“But wouldn’t the red one look nicer?” 

“I-” Sam looked between the two females, “whatever she’s comfortable with.”

“But she always wears black.” 

“Well-”

“Just try the red one on,” Sofia persisted. Natasha shot her a death glare that would have had a lesser omega cowering under the covers but still went back into the closet. 

Sam went past Natasha and into the closet to look for a set of pajamas for the night. They reemerged from the closet one right after the other, Natasha clad in Sofia’s red camisole before he could make an attempt at escape. 

“Okay, the red  _ does _ look nice,” Sam allowed from behind the redhead. Natasha didn’t glare at him, she was too busy observing her appearance in the mirror to the side of the closet door. 

“It matches your hair,” Sofia offered. 

Wisely, Bruce turned back to his book. 

“Fine, I’ll wear the red,” the alpha conceded, then took it off to pull her sleep shirt back on. 

“What pants should I wear?”

“Well what are you gonna do?” 

“Me and Steve volunteer at this boxing thing, he helps with the instructing part and I go in once a month to look over the self defense program they have.” 

Without explanation, Sofia knew the program most likely didn’t cater to omegas since programs that the American Omegan Services cleared were few and far between. The AOS was government run and controlled the official mating services, as well as worked with ACS or CPS to maintain orphanages. In some situations like Sofia’s former one, they worked with religious organizations to run the orphanages, but they also coordinated with the Board of Education

Most notably though, the corporation set regulations and guidelines for omegas around the country. 

In some states like New York and California, the state’s Board of Omegan Services worked to make some things better, like the clinic she’d sent Peter and MJ to. In other states like Texas, Georgia, and South Carolina, the states worked hard to keep conservative values and do the opposite. 

What was consistent though, was how strict the country was when it came to omegas learning self defense and getting martial arts training. According to the federal corporation, omegas were violent enough in nature and as a result, couldn’t be allowed to legally obtain formal training. 

Sofia didn’t bring any of that up though. It was probably common knowledge to everyone in the penthouse. 

“That sounds fun,” she said instead. 

Natasha’s bright green eyes seemed willing oblivious to whatever must have been storming in Sofia’s own grey ones. 

“It’s rewarding, also do you wanna do ‘I’m blessing you with my presence but still don’t care enough to get dressy,’ athletic clothes, ‘I know I look better than you don’t worry you don’t have to remind me,’ kinda dressy, or something else,” she offered, bringing the conversation around to the original starting point. 

Sam gave Sofia a skeptical look while Natasha answered, “I’m thinking ‘I know I look better than you but I still don’t care enough to get dressy,’ so the first and the third. I’m not actually going to be moving around.” 

The omega tilted her head in thought, internally rifling through what she knew of Natasha’s closet. 

“What about Tony’s jeans, or Bruce’s, you’re shorter than Tony right?” She said the last part to Bruce, who looked a little less worried that her and Natasha’s bickering would turn into an argument. 

“I think I’m a size smaller,” Bruce conceded. Sam dropped his pajamas for the night on the side of the bed and started changing. Personally, Sofia didn’t really understand the purpose of showering in the middle of the day, but the schedule seemed to work for Sam and was one he kept unless they were getting ready for something. 

Natasha went back into the closet to fish out a pair of Bruce’s jeans and came back out with them out, a belt in her hand. 

It was a thin black lace patterned belt that wouldn’t really do much if the jeans were already big, but Natasha fastened it tightly enough that it looked nice. 

“And wear your black SHIELD boots and do a middle part.” 

“I look like one of those trendy girls on TikTok,” she said, switching her shirt for the red camisole again. 

“No baby you look nicer than all the E-girls in the world.”

“It looks nice,” Sam offered on his way to put his day clothes in the hamper. 

Sofia was half sure the alpha would scrap the outfit and look for something else, but she just looked at her reflection again and nodded decisively. 

Sam scooted into the bed on Sofia’s other side, and Natasha left the room. Out of everyone, he and Bruce were the only ones that actually slept at regular hours. The trio scooted to the middle so that the others would have room to enter. 

Natasha would probably come to bed in another hour or so, Clint no longer than a half an hour behind her. Bucky, Thor, and Steve all needed less sleep than regular humans, so they’d come to bed around two or three in the morning so that they’d be able to wake up with everyone else instead of hours before. 

One of the three would pull Tony from his work and prod him into a shower if he didn’t surface on his own. Sofia had gotten the honor of pulling the alpha from his work once or twice already on days that she didn’t have school the next day, but on nights where she or the others had obligations the next morning, that was their rough sleep schedule. 

Sofia was still scrolling through her phone, swiping between apps and other messages. The light wouldn’t bother Sam nor Bruce, and she wasn’t tired enough to put it down. 

“What’s that?” Sam asked quietly. Bruce had already put his book down and would probably be asleep soon enough.

The picture in question had come up in her SnapChat memories from a few years ago and was of fourteen year old Sofia sticking her middle finger up at whoever was holding the camera. 

“Fourteen year old Sofia.” 

“Yikes.”

“Yeah, she was a bit of a bitch,” that was an understatement. At fourteen, Sofia had been a half feral girl ready to take on the world for no other reason than she thought she could, and not in the cute way. 

“Pretty sure fourteen year old Sofia and fourteen year old Sam woulda gotten along.” 

“Really?” 

“Yeah, I was the reverend’s kid. Did what I was supposed to do, helped out where I was needed. I was a good kid.” 

Sofia looked over her shoulder at the alpha who was resting his head on his pillow, eyes cast upwards to the ceiling. 

“I never met a preacher’s kid that wasn’t a alcoholic by twenty.” 

Sam made an indigent noise, “Alcoholic? I was ‘round eighteen when  _ that _ was a problem.”

“Not supposed to brag about that Sam,” Bruce faux chastised. Since she was laying on her stomach, she couldn’t see his face, but she saw Sam shoot Bruce a look. 

Bruce shifted to his side, resting his head on Sofia’s upper back and slinging an arm around her, “She would’ve killed fourteen year old Bruce.” 

She shook her head, about to refute the statement, then changed her mind, “Not intentionally, but actually wait,” while omegas could legally get mated to an alpha at eighteen, if an alpha wanted to go through official channels rather than meeting someone organically they needed to wait until twenty five, so she didn’t think the comparison was fair. 

Shifting to get more comfortable, she told them as much, “It’s eighteen for a omega and twenty five for an alpha, so fourteen and fourteen isn’t fair, wouldn’t it be fourteen and twenty one” 

“Okay that’s a little better but I still would’ve been terrified.” 

“I was in the military, so I think I would have been worse.”

“Oh,” she turned her head to look at Sam as best as she could, “you were the ‘I got a uniform that gets me bitches’ guy.” 

Sam rolled his eyes at her, “I had game.” 

“Sure you did baby,” she placated and pressed a kiss to his temple. 

“I  _ still  _ have game.” 

She didn’t want to agree with him, preferring to playfully ignore him, but he looked like he was half asleep, so she just pressed another kiss to his temple.    
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, let me know what you think, or if you have any ideas for the future, suggestions on what you think I should do, or if you've got any questions. You can also drop an ask or a message on my [Tumblr](https://so--fucking--bored.tumblr.com) if you wanna talk. Last but not least to the person that suggested some bonding time thanks so much this was super fun to write.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 5/23/2020-5/24/20

The rest of the week finished quickly, and before she knew it her mates’ families were milling around the tower, getting measured for their suits or dresses and mingling with each other. 

Rose and Loki were looking at each other carefully, as if unsure whether to approach the other in the new environment. Sofia didn’t pay Rose’s quick glances at the omega any mind, opting to carefully ignore the way Clint, Bucky, and Sam doted on Sam’s niece. 

She thought it was adorable, but if either of them brought up the idea of children she would most likely end up devising a plan to get pregnant, so she didn’t say anything just yet. 

Sofia just reminded herself that her goal was a few more months. Everything was so new, and she couldn’t imagine having pups would help. 

Shit, the  _ wedding _ would only help so much, but they were all so excited for it that Sofia didn’t care about whatever repercussions it could possibly bring. 

A small hand patted excitedly at her calf, and Sofia stopped talking with Rose to look down at the pup that wanted her attention, “Hey baby.” 

The pup just looked at her with wide eyes, as if surprised she’d managed to get the older omega’s attention. She was around three or so if Sam’s estimates were correct, and until now had been hesitantly included into Clint’s niece and nephew’s game. Other than that, all Sofia knew about the pup was that she usually clung to her mother, and was named Catherine. 

She bent down to take the pup into her arms. Though she wasn’t ready to have any of her own yet, she couldn’t deny that she’d missed having pups around her like she’d had at the orphanage. 

At Catherine’s age, she didn’t have that newborn pup scent, but she still had the refreshing scent that was unique to young pups.

The young female would be the ring bearer at the wedding. Though ring bearers were usually breeders rather than carriers, they’d decided that Catherine’s easy going nature and natural inclination to help would make her a good fit for the role. 

“Ommy?” Catherine asked, voice a little scared and near cracking

“Alright, let’s go find you’re ommy baby,” Sofia soothed, putting the girl on her hip and rubbing her back. There was a reason sex traffickers used their older omega victims to lure children in. It was instinct for pups to find an omega they deemed safe, and the scent formula couldn’t be replicated, which lead both pups and parents to encourage the former to trust their instincts when it came to omegas.

The fact that some omegas couldn’t just automatically be safe to pups hadn’t really mattered for Sofia though. Back at the orphanage, she spent enough time with pups that she had the faint scent of a pup on her no matter where she went, which alone, seemed to make her a good candidate for approaching. Usually, that scent faded after a while, and she hadn’t been sure that pups would still approach her once it did, but Catherine’s actions seemed to indicate it hadn’t. 

They found Harper, Catherine’s mother coming out from behind a partition, wearing one of the maroon bridesmaid’s dresses Sofia and the others had picked out last week. It was the one with a deep v-shaped neckline, and it highlighted the omega’s chest and shoulders nicely.

In Sofia’s arms, Catherine started whimpering when she laid eyes on her mother. The elder omega shot her daughter an exasperatedly fond look but went to collect her. 

“I’m so sorry.”

“No, it’s fine, she just started asking for you and I didn’t want ‘er to freak you out,” Sofia explained, feeling bad that the elder omega looked so tired. Had she not brought Catherine to her mother though, there was a chance the pup’s distress would bleed into their family’s pack bond and Harper would have frantically gone looking for her daughter. 

Harper gave her a grateful look, and said to her daughter, “You just don’t like spending time with your papa do you.” 

Catherine didn’t answer, just pawed at her mother’s breast demandingly. 

“I know, I know, it’s so hard seeing Ommy’s boobs even though I weaned you almost a year ago.”

Sofia nearly left, feeling like she was intruding, but Madolina, the kind seamstress in charge of most of their dresses, ushered her over. 

“I will kick the fuckers out soon, and you can try on the big dress I started and the two small dresses I have.” 

Sofia snorted at the crude word for breeders but nodded. The wedding wasn’t exactly traditional by any means, but she still didn’t want Tony or any of the pack to see her dress before time. 

Madolina’s cousin was also waiting for the wedding party to be split. He’d started measuring everyone else, but had also apparently thought that Sofia seeing her mates’ suits would have an equally bad omen.

“Can you bring her to her dad for me sweetie? Sorry, she just wants to measure me and she won’t sleep on the couch or nothing,” Harper rushed, a now sleeping Catherine in her arms. She hadn’t even noticed the pup was sleepy before, but just a few minutes in her mother’s arms and Catherine was dead to the world. 

“Yeah sure, don’t worry,” Sofia accepted the sleeping toddler into her arms, adjusting her so that the young omega could rest her head on her elder’s shoulder again. 

“Thanks, he’s the Dominican that’s trying to look fancy.”

Sofia smiled and turned to walk out of the space to where the others were mingling. 

Quiet footsteps came up behind her, and Kimberly, Bucky’s however many greats granddaughter, tapped her shoulder. 

“She’s so pretty,” the young omega whispered, to her right with an equally nervous look on his face, was Erin. The omega male was sixteen, and, as Jim Morita’s great grandson, had been raised in the loose family that was the descendants of the Howling Commandos. From what Sofia had seen of the two of them, they were close, if not best friends. 

“I gotta get her to her dad, but we could ask if you could hold her,” normally she’d just let the pups take her, but parents tended to be finicky with who held their children, more so omega children. 

Erin looked to Kimberly for guidance, and the girl nodded, “Yeah, please.” 

Finding the girl’s father was easy enough. He was along the border of light skinned and dark but not quite one or the other, had a beard cut close to his face, dressed nicely in a dark polo and jeans, and had a thick gold chain around his neck. 

“Hi,” she said to the beta when she got close enough, “uh her mom said to bring her, but they said they could watch her if you want,” she offered the male. 

He looked like he wasn’t sure what to say for a minute, but shrugged a shoulder and smiled widely, “Sure, sure, just bring her to me if she cries.” 

Erin and Kimberly shot him happy glances, and Kimberly took the pup from her arms. 

They scurried off to sit somewhere, and Sofia found herself drifting to where Rose was. The beta was one of the only unoccupied familiar faces in the room, and Sofia knew that neither of them would eagerly start a conversation with a stranger any time soon. 

“Paulie asked me to go tomorrow,” she started. 

Rose shot her a familiar look that said more than whatever words she’d dare say in front of so many strangers. 

_ Are you seriously thinking about this after all the shit you’ve done to each other? _

“Not gonna go,” Sofia defended, fighting a small smile. 

“Where’re we going?” A new voice pitched in, and Sofia turned her eyes to look at Maria. 

“She wants to go to a party where her ex, someone she hooked up with, and someone that offered to mary her are.” 

“It isn’t technically a party and I’m not gonna go.”

“Did I mention they’re all related?” 

“I’m gonna go talk to the tailor,” Sofia dismissed the laughing betas and went back over to where Madolina was. 

They were on one of the unoccupied residential floors of the tower, from years ago when they’d lived apart rather than all in the penthouse. 

“Good timing,” the female mumbled, looking up from a worn piece of paper she’d been scribbling on. Harper was readjusting her shirt, and looking at something on her phone. 

“Here, try this I will kick the fuckers to their room,” Sofia grinned and took the dress into her arms, imagining the polite shock on Steve’s face when Madolina went to yell at the breeders. 

She hung the dress on one of the hooks on the partition and started pulling her clothes off. The dress was long and didn’t have a corset like the one she’d wear for the ceremony did. It fell to her ankles, and was rather simple, with thin straps, and a low cowl neckline that would show off the marks on her neck nicely. 

Originally, changing from a traditionally omegan dress to something more flashy and modern was to symbolize maturity and change, but Sofia was just using it as an excuse to get wedding pictures in two dresses. The satin material fell down around her nicely, hugging the curves of her hips without emphasizing the bulge of her stomach too much. 

She’d try on the second dress Madolina had brought her, but she was fairly sure she’d stick with this one. 

“I like it,” she said to the mirror. 

Rose and the bridesmaids entered dramatically, and her friend let out a loud  _ aww _ before going on a tangent, blatantly fake emotion in her voice, “I remember when you were a little freshman with a tampon stuck-”

“Rose!” 

“-and now you’re off getting married.” 

“I hope when you turn your pillow to the other side so it’s cool it’s hot, and that you step in a puddle and get your socks wet when it’s hot out so your feet get all-”

“This is getting intense-” Maria interrupted, sliding past Rose to sit down on one of the long couches. 

Sofia rolled her eyes, and despite her earlier statement, Rose came behind her to zip up her dress for her. 

“Thank you,” she told her friend in an overly sweet voice and was rewarded with a sharp slap to the back of her head.

Before Rose could say something, Madolina came back into the room, tape measure in one hand and a pincushion in the other. 

Rose went back to the couches with everyone else, and Madolina started fiddling with the fabric, putting pins in some spots and messing with the hem when she was done. 

“Okay, now the other, then we decide.” 

Sofia smiled at the woman, excitement settling deep into her. 

“Ahh, young love.”

“He’s old enough to be her grandfather,” an unfamiliar voice responded to Madolina’s sarcastic remark. 

She turned to the new voice, eyes landing on Clint’s sister in law. 

“We don’t talk about that part.” 

“I mean if they’re young enough for it to work-”

Sofia stared wide eyed at her future sister in law, shock, and endearment fighting for dominance inside of her, “I-”

Jane, Thor’s friend, looked up from where she seemed to be doodling equations on a napkin, “Do they take-”

“Please,  _ no _ , there’s no viagra,” Sofia cut the beta off, and the carriers fell into shocked laughter, aside from Erin, Kimberly, and Rhodey’s brother Jessie, who were all looking torn between laughter and weary shock. 

“I like the first one better,” she said to the mirror. This dress wasn’t too different, but it had beading on the chest, that combined with the lack of a stiff back didn’t look as nice as the plain, simple dress she’d put on first. 

“Me too,” Madolina decided, and her cousin Daniela came into the room, a clipboard in hand. 

They quietly exchanged some words, then Madolina said to her, “One of the alphas wants to come in.” 

“Oh uh I mean, it’s up to them, they’re the ones still getting dressed, but I don’t mind long as we can put the dress somewhere.” 

“No,” Daniela corrected, “it’s Alpha Potts. She said she could meet you by the door.” 

Sofia let out a contemplative, “Oh,” but went over to the door anyway, holding up the excess hem of the dress with one hand so she wouldn’t trip over it. 

Pepper was standing a little away from the door, in the hallway, looking over a tablet that she couldn’t see the screen of. 

“Hi, Sam and Thor were talking with the wedding planner since they’d already tried their suits on. What do you think of-” Pepper cut herself off, politely warm tone halting when her eyes landed on Sofia’s dress, and the omega felt her cheeks flush. 

“Oh-I’m not, this isn’t the one I’m wearing.” 

“Alright,” the alpha plowed on, and turned the tablet toward her so Sofia could see the large, ornate space in front of her. 

It was a large, dark, and open space, with pillars and arches that reminded her of something medieval. In some of the pictures on the screen it was set up for a ceremony, but in others, it was set with long tables in the center of the space. 

Part of her wanted to veto the venue, if only so there’d be a second option for them, but it was far from the first venue she’d looked at, she liked it a lot, and Sam and Thor had obviously taken into consideration everyone’s personal tastes. 

Natasha, Clint, and Tony would all like it for the  _ grandness _ of it all, from the pictures Thor had shown her, it would remind the blond of Asgard, Steve was likely to be impressed by the architecture, oddly enough Bucky and Bruce had both shown an attraction to the medieval era, and Sam probably thought of the pictures they’d be able to take, just as she had. 

“I like it.” 

“Great,” her stepfather said in a chipper voice, then turned on her heel to walk away. 

Sofia tried not to be confused at the strange encounter, but she was also a little refreshed by the polite professionalism the alpha offered, so she didn’t protest. She and Pepper hadn’t interacted much, but from their few brief ones she knew that there was a distant, if familial relationship beginning to form between them. It reminded her of how she’d seen her friends and a few of the uncles they didn’t know so well interact. 

The young Sofia that had dreamt of her father rushing into the orphanage, guns blazing, wanted something more substantial between the two of them. But, the realistic eighteen year old was near giddy at the idea of a platonic, familiar relationship with an alpha. 

“Fucking daddy issues,” she muttered to herself, shaking the encounter off to turn to the door. 

Back in the large, former bedroom that they’d been occupying, the others were all dressed in the maroon, deep v-necklined dress with a slit up one leg. Catherine and Lila were the only ones not dressed, the former asleep on the couch and the latter looking excitedly at the small, child sized white dresses in their mothers’ hands. 

She didn’t know how they all had the chance to change so quickly when they’d barely been undressing before, but she didn’t say anything. 

In the front of the room, Madolina had turned to start fretting over Jessie, needing to take in a few inches of his dress where a female’s breasts would usually fill it out.

“Can we see your dress to get a better look? She bought out these, but we’re trying to match close to yours, but not put them in the same ones,” Harper said, gesturing to the dresses her, Lila, and Laura were holding. 

“Sure, just let me-” she fumbled around, looking for her phone, then set to looking for the email Madolina had sent her during the week. It was a picture of her dress, mostly finished, on a mannequin. 

The first time she’d seen it the other day, she’d nearly jumped out of her seat during Calculus, and though it still made her heart race in excitement, she was able to refrain from physically jumping around. 

Both of them made the appropriate noises of awe, and afterward, Harper said considerately, “Cathy doesn’t do too good with lace, makes her itch. What if she wore this one since it’s almost the same lace,” she gestured to the dress in Laura’s hand. The skirt of it didn’t have the same lace that the arms of Sofia’s dress would be made of trailing down it, but it was a close second. 

“That’s so pretty,” she contributed, and hopefully it was helpful. She didn’t care much for the specifics of what the pups wore, her main focus was with her dress and the bridesmaids’ dresses. 

“Then maybe we can put Lila in this one, it’s got almost the same stuff on the top, so it’s like two halves.” 

Together, they set to planning. Harper had to wake Catherine up so that the pup could try on the dress they’d chosen for her, but the pup was wide eyed and excited. 

~~~~

Hours later, after everyone had either left to wherever they were staying and an hour or two after she and her mates had all piled into bed together, JARVIS started blaring an alarm that had half of the alphas sitting up sharply and the others groaning into their pillows. 

Unsure what the sound meant, Sofia blinked her eyes open blearily from where she’d wound up half on top of Thor and partially on top of Sam. 

“What the fuck?” She muttered into his chest, then found herself being gently pushed off of both of her mates. 

_ “It is May twenty-fourth, three-forty-three AM, Agent Phil Coulson has sounded the Avengers’ alarm, and you are needed on the Quinjet immediately. It is May twenty-” _

Thankfully, Tony cut the AI off, with a groaned out “Okay we’re moving shut it.” Sofia whimpered into the place where Sam’s head had been minutes ago, still half asleep. 

“Sammy come back,” she whined out, then found the alpha’s thigh with a hand and half crawled into his lap. 

He pet her hair a bit, hands clumsy with sleep, not pushing her off again just then. 

“If the world isn’t ‘boutta end, I’m stabbing Agent.”

“I’m telling Pepper you said that,” Bucky grumbled into Thor’s chest. 

When Sofia opened her eyes again, Bucky was grumbling and looking around in the closet, Tony was texting someone, and Sam was coming out of the bathroom clad in just a towel. 

She got out of the bed with minimal fumbling and only muttered out a “Coffee” when Bruce asked where she was going. 

In the kitchen she found Natasha pulling out a few of the large thermoses from the cupboard, and a few of the ones on the counter were already full. Noticing what the alpha was doing, Sofia pulled out one of the large half and half containers, then poured the milk into a thermos. Next, she took a jar from the cupboard and started filling it with sugar. 

There was probably coffee wherever SHIELD was sending them, but from what she’d seen they all had particular tastes in concern to their caffeine. 

“Thanks, Sof,” Natasha grumbled.

Sofia nodded, not having the energy to be enough of a morning person for the both of them, and started filling a pot with water to make tea. 

“Kettle’s right there,” she heard from somewhere behind her. She shook her head and grumbled about how it was too loud. 

The next thing she did was shuffle towards the fridge, slightly more awake. If she couldn’t trust the alphas to drink SHIELD’s coffee, she wasn’t sure she could trust them to eat whatever breakfast was there either. 

“What’re you doing?” Bruce asked, annoyingly awake.

“Chicken,” she said, reaching for the container with some of the chicken they’d eaten last night. Leftovers in their house were rare, but the caterer had just left nearly two trays of chicken with them the day before. Bruce pulled a baking sheet and sprayed some Pam on it. 

Sofia in barely awake approval, carelessly letting the chicken fall onto the sheet and shoving it in the oven. She could have put it into the microwave, but then they wouldn’t have been able to heat up as many at once. 

The second Bruce had turned his back, she cranked the heat up from three hundred degrees to four hundred and seventy five. 

Oven properly heated, she grabbed the tupperware with the rest of the pastries she’d made the other day. There weren’t many left, but enough for two tupperwares full. She put them in the duffle bag, next to the pop tarts, and leaned against the counter to wonder what to do next. 

Natasha, ever the blessing, pressed a coffee mug into her hand. Steam wafted into her face as she took a long sip of the liquid and ignored the way it unpleasantly burned her tongue. 

The water had just started to boil, and Sofia found herself thankful for the most likely enhanced stove. She poured the water into another one of the ridiculously large thermoses, this one for Bruce to use for tea later. Enough water was left in the pot that she was able to pour him a cup, but she didn’t put a teabag in either since she wasn’t sure what he’d want. 

Natasha called out a sharp “Bruce,” and the alpha stumbled to put his teabag of choice into the mug. A face pressed into Sofia’s neck, and she leaned back into Natasha’s arms, delighted at the alpha’s comforting hold on her. 

Natasha let her go after a lazy kiss, and Sofia leaned against the counter until the smell of cooking meat became undeniable, and she took the now steaming chicken out of the oven.

Steve was the first to approach the chicken, and ignored Sofia’s, “You’re gonna get burned.”

Barely a minute later, Clint came and made the same mistake, then looked affronted when Sofia snorted a laugh into her coffee. 

“I’m so sorry,” Tony muttered into her hair, “told Agent it was all too new, and there’s too much going on, but he said it's so bad they’re even callin’ Wakanda for help.”

His words made the reality of the situation dawn on Sofia, and the omega felt a bit of fear trickle in through her previously calm exterior. The last time the public had heard of the Avengers getting any sort of formal action was years ago with the situation in Tennessee. 

All around her, the alphas were uneasy, and as she started to break from her sleepy, zombie like state, the uneasiness bled through the bond. 

Sofia didn’t respond to his words, just burrowed further into his chest. She didn’t want to admit to him how the idea of them all leaving her made her fearful and uneasy, but she didn’t want to lie to them either. 

Her poor therapist would probably have a field day when they met Monday. 

“Pepper left after last night to handle some stuff in California. She’ll be here in a few hours if anything happens, but she won’t be done until next week, so that means Phil is gonna come check on you okay?”

“Phil’s a dick.”   
  


“I’m honored.” 

Sofia tore her head away from Tony’s chest to glare at the man that was standing just outside of the elevator. She still hadn’t mentioned their relationship to him and wasn’t secretive about her reluctance to be around him. 

She gave Tony a look that got him to send the feeling of  _ I’m sorry but it was the only option _ through the bond. Something in her softened, and she resolved to do her best and at least make their goodbye easy. 

“Go get Harley sweet pea, he loves it when you nest up with him,” Sam urged from behind her. 

Nesting up with the pups always sounded like a good idea, even though she didn’t do it often, but, “Where’s Pete?” 

Tony stiffened, and the hand that Sam had been rubbing over her shoulders stilled. 

“He’s at his aunt’s baby,” Tony said, and Sofia knew he was lying. After the dress fittings, a caterer had come with dinner, and whoever didn’t have to leave after dinner had gotten together to watch movies. Spider-man or not, there wasn’t any way the fourteen year old had gone back to Queens alone after one in the morning. 

“Tell him to come back,” it was one thing for him to fight whoever decided to bother little old ladies on the street, but if the situation was serious enough that Wakanda was being called in for help, she’d do whatever she could to make sure he wasn’t caught in any crossfire. 

“Sofia-”

“No,” she did her best to whisper the protest, not sure if Coulson knew about Peter or not. 

“He’s  _ fourteen _ , you’ll figure it out,” she hissed, then forced herself to keep eye contact even as his eyes narrowed in annoyance. 

His jaw clenched a bit, and her stomach rolled with a hint of nervousness and the desire to submit that conflicted with the need to protect her youngest pup. 

“Taking him could save lives, Sof,” his jaw was still tight with tension, but there was a hint of something in his voice that she clung to. Part of Sofia understood, Spider-Man had slowly been getting involved with more serious work and less of the normal neighborly acts, but he was fourteen. It sucked ass, and it terrified her, but her mates knew what they were doing, they’d done this countless times. 

_ Shit, _ years ago she’d seen them as her and some of the others from the orphanage ran away from those aliens whose name she still couldn’t pronounce, saved by a mutant that had lashed out with some sort of green energy ray. 

From what she knew, Peter didn’t have any of that experience though. He was just a scared pup that liked to help people after being bitten by a spider.

“And leaving him could save his,” she tried to gentle her tone a bit, use the one that almost always got her what she wanted, but it still sounded strained and angry. 

Tony slid his hand over her bare throat, nearly able to wrap himself around it. He sharply tugged upwards so that she was forced to tilt her chin up. 

“You, are  _ very _ lucky I was doubting it in the first place, Sofia,” he whispered harshly to her. 

And, the ironic thing was that he was right. 

She could name at least five different alphas that would beat her bloody, then take Peter to spite her just for questioning their authority, much less in front of others. 

“Thank you,” she whispered, breaking eye contact to look down to his chest. 

He leaned down to nose at her temple, and she rose to her toes to nudge the underside of his in return. 

“I love you,” he whispered into her ear. The scared, omega part of her wanted to thrash and scream at him that the first time he said those words to her shouldn’t have been on a day where he and the others could die, but she didn’t say anything, just pressed a kiss to where her bite rested on his neck. 

“I love you,” she returned, stuffing down that instinctual, fearful part of her.

“Go tell the others.” 

She did, and it didn’t matter that Bruce was the only other one that said it back to her, what mattered was the way Natasha’s arms tightened in response, the way Clint sucked in a breath of air like just thinking the words hurt him, the way she was pretty sure Bucky almost muttered them back, Sam’s reassurance of “You too,” which nearly as bad as Tony’s confession, Thor’s quiet exhale, and the way Steve’s thumb lingered over his mating mark on her neck like it was the only thing he was certain was real. 

“I’ll bring them back,” Steved promised, reminding her that for all he was soft and submissive, so easy for Tony, so strong but pliable with her, so  _ gentle, _ he was the alpha out in the field, not Tony. 

Sofia didn’t say anything, she didn’t want him to promise her that, didn’t want to believe that it would all be okay, but she didn’t want to walk into the situation with only negativity on her shoulders. 

Steve’s bright blue eyes showed nothing but understanding, and he nudged her towards the hallway, “Go nest up with the pups Sof.” 

It felt weird and strange and shameful to leave them, but Sam sent her off with a nudge on her back and a rush of warmth through their bond. 

Peter was sound asleep in Harley’s bed, the two pups on opposite sides, but still facing each other. It made sense. Peter’s senses were so heightened that it took him ages to fall asleep, and often someone else’s presence was the only thing that helped. Even more, she was fairly certain that Harley had never had his own bed. 

“C’mon,” she mumbled to Harley. He was the deeper of the two sleepers and would take longer to rouse, he was also less likely to not be able to fall back asleep, “Harley c’mon.” 

Harley opened a bleary eye and grumbled something unintelligible, but stumbled to his feet when she pulled his arm anyways. 

He held his arms close to his chest like a child and followed as she went over to Peter’s side of the bed to grab his arm and do the same. 

Peter woke as soon as she pulled on his arm, and didn’t ask any questions, just sleepily got to his feet and followed her into the bedroom and towards the door opposite the door to the ensuite bathroom. 

The nest smelt warm, like pack, comfort, and mate, with a hint of Rose from the few blankets she’d stolen. There was a faint smell of sex from the last time her and her mates gotten together in the nest, but it wasn’t too strong after a few days, more like a deep, intimate intertwining of sents. 

The pups were still mostly asleep, so they just threw themselves into different spots of the nest. Sofia was a bit more careful choosing her spot, curling up around the large Mickey Mouse stuffed animal Sam refused to let her keep in the bed. 

Sofia didn’t sleep that night.    
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, so this a/n is going to be more of a ramble, so if anything just skip it or skip to the end. I hope you liked the chapter and if you've got any feedback for me don't hesitate to drop a comment, I've been doing my best to keep up with them now (I may have forgotten to respond to the non question ones but I caught up with most of them). I love to hear from readers, and would like to know if you've got any ideas for the story or just something you wanna say. Also if you want to talk, my asks and messages are open on my [Tumblr](https://so--fucking--bored.tumblr.com). 
> 
> Now, if you've made it this far into my ramble I have a question but it's a little bit of a spoiler so this is your only warning. 
> 
> Do you guys like Wanda? 
> 
> Personally I don't really like her, but I'm not gonna write an anti Wanda story that wasn't advertised as one since I know she's got a lot of fans, so let me know what you think.


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